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Herding Oil Slicks with Fatty Alcohol and Carbonaceous Particles

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Abstract

Oil slicks occurring during petroleum transportation or production are major sources of surface water pollution, and spread over large areas. Herders are interfacially active species that reduce the spread of oil slicks on water surfaces, facilitating slick recovery. Here, octanol (a readily biodegradable fatty alcohol) is used as a herder to facilitate the recovery of diluted bitumen and conventional crude oil spilled onto the surface of fresh and synthetic marine water. While octanol promptly decreases the area of simulated oil slicks in Petri dishes, over time it partitions into the oil phase and lowers its interfacial tension. As a result, low-viscosity hydrocarbons (toluene and conventional crude oil) re-spread. This study uses charcoal to suppress re-spreading and facilitate the mechanical recovery of oil slicks. Charcoal partitions into the crude oil phase and does not stabilize crude oil in water emulsions upon mixing, as demonstrated using optical microscopy. This ensures that charcoal particles are not lost to the water phase and do not promote hydrocarbon dispersion. Charcoal prevents herded slicks from re-expanding by rigidifying the crude oil–water interface (demonstrated using a Langmuir trough) and potentially due to the affinity of crude oil for charcoal. Therefore, charcoal facilitates the physical removal of crude oil slicks after herding, as qualitatively assessed by retrieving them from Petri dishes with the aid of a spatula. While charcoal also facilitates the recovery of herded low-viscosity conventional crude oil, it has only a marginal effect on the recovery of herded bitumen, which has high viscosity.

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Highlights

• Oil slicks are major sources of surface water pollution.

• Herders such as octanol reduce the spread of oil slicks on water surfaces.

• Charcoal and octanol facilitate the recovery of low-viscosity hydrocarbon slicks.

• Charcoal and octanol facilitate the recovery of low-viscosity hydrocarbon slicks.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Lindsay Hounjet for the valuable comments.

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Natural Resources, 2022.

Funding

The authors were supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (provided through an NSERC Discovery grant, awarded to Dr. Erica Pensini, RGPIN-2018–04636). The authors also were financially supported by the Program of Energy Research and Development of the Government of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, ON, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Canada

    Laura Earnden, Sierra Eckel Foster & Erica Pensini

  2. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Street, bl. 11, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria

    Plamen Tchoukov

  3. Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY Devon, 1 Oil Patch Drive, AB, T9G 1A8, Devon, Canada

    Stanislav R. Stoyanov

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  1. Laura Earnden
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Earnden, L., Foster, S.E., Tchoukov, P. et al. Herding Oil Slicks with Fatty Alcohol and Carbonaceous Particles. Water Air Soil Pollut 233, 270 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05706-6

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