초록 ▼

Systems and methods for barring the advance of an oil spill or for corralling such an oil spill. The systems provide area bubble plumes of air that remain coherent to reaching the surface, in contrast to previous bubble curtains under waves. The area bubble plume may be formed by parallel sparger el

Systems and methods for barring the advance of an oil spill or for corralling such an oil spill. The systems provide area bubble plumes of air that remain coherent to reaching the surface, in contrast to previous bubble curtains under waves. The area bubble plume may be formed by parallel sparger elements that provide a wide plume of bubbles, and are suspended below the surface no more than 10 m. The sparger elements may be mounted in a matrix of structural support members. A series of discrete segments of the system can be connected together to form a flexible chain. The connected segments are desirably coiled around a spool on the rear end of a vessel for easy deployment. The sparger elements are tubular and made of the porous, resistive material that requires a greater luminal pressure than the exterior pressure to create fine bubbles.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A wide area bubble plume system for controlling oil floating on a surface of a body of water, comprising: (i) a bubble distributor including at least three connected two-dimensional flexible sheet-like segments, each segment having a series of sparger elements distributed across the segment so as

1. A wide area bubble plume system for controlling oil floating on a surface of a body of water, comprising: (i) a bubble distributor including at least three connected two-dimensional flexible sheet-like segments, each segment having a series of sparger elements distributed across the segment so as to produce bubbles across a width of at least 0.5 m, the segments being flexibly connected together at adjacent longitudinal ends and each having a primary air feeder line and a coupler element at both ends thereof in fluid communication with the coupler elements on primary air feeder line(s) of the adjacent segment(s); and(ii) buoyant elements connected via tethers to each of the bubble distributor segments adopted to float on the surface of a body of water and maintain the segments at a predetermined subsurface depth. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein each primary air feeder line extends longitudinally along one lateral side of the segment and has a flexible connection to another primary air feeder line on adjacent segment(s), to accommodate flexing of the connected segments with respect to one another. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein each of the segments further includes at least one secondary air feeder line extending laterally across the width of the segment and being in fluid communication with each of the series of sparger elements that are oriented longitudinally. 4. The system of claim 1, further including an open mesh connecting the series of sparger elements together and maintaining their relative positioning. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the sparger elements comprises a tube defining a lumen and made of flexible, porous, resistive material that when submerged requires a lumen pressure greater than an exterior pressure before gas will transit through the tube wall from the lumen to the exterior. 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the segments are wound about a spool prior to deployment. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the spool includes an airflow inlet along its axis for communicating with the primary air feeder lines of the connected segments. 8. A wide area bubble plume system for controlling oil floating on a surface of a body of water, comprising: (i) a bubble distributor including a plurality of sparger elements each formed of dual layers of material having parallel regions attached to define a lumen and at least one layer of the material being made of flexible, porous, resistive material that when submerged requires a lumen pressure greater than an exterior pressure before gas will transit through the at least one layer from the lumen to the exterior, the sparger elements being joined by a flexible grid having open flow-through holes to form a flexible flat panel that may undulate in ocean waves; and(ii) buoyant elements connected via tethers to the bubble distributor adapted to float on the surface of a body of water and maintain the bubble distributor at a predetermined subsurface depth. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the flexible grid comprises an open mesh connecting the series of sparger elements together and maintaining their relative positioning, the open mesh being formed of a diagonally crossed network of polymer straps that define diamond-shaped openings having a larger dimension of between about 1-4 inches. 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the system comprises a plurality of separate identical segments connected together, each segment having a primary air feeder line that extends longitudinally along one lateral side of the segment and has a flexible connection to another primary air feeder line on adjacent segment(s), and wherein each of the segments further includes at least one secondary air feeder line extending laterally across the width of the segment and being in fluid communication with each of the sparger elements that are oriented longitudinally. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the flexible grid in each segment further includes an open mesh connecting the series of sparger elements together and maintaining the relative positioning of the sparger elements, primary air feeder line, and secondary air feeder line. 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the longitudinally oriented sparger elements are spaced about 3-6 inches apart. 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the segments are flexible and wound about a spool prior to deployment. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the spool includes an airflow inlet along its axis for communicating with the primary air feeder lines of the connected segments. 15. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of sparger elements are spaced in parallel at least 30 cm apart from each other. 16. A wide area bubble plume system for controlling oil floating on a surface of a body of water, comprising: (i) a bubble distributor including at least two sparger elements each formed of a tube defining a lumen and made of flexible, porous, resistive material that when submerged requires a lumen pressure greater than an exterior pressure before gas will transit through the tube wall from the lumen to the exterior, the at least two sparger elements being connected together to remain spaced apart in parallel and form a flexible flat segment that may undulate in ocean waves, a plurality of separate identical segments being flexibly connected together at adjacent longitudinal ends and each having a primary air feeder line in fluid communication with primary air feeder line(s) of the adjacent segment(s), and weights and buoyant members connected to the flexible segments and adapted to maintain the bubble distributor subsurface. 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the primary air feeder line of each segment extends longitudinally along one lateral side of the segment and has a flexible connection to another primary air feeder line on adjacent segment(s), and wherein each of the segments further includes at least one secondary air feeder line extending laterally across the width of the segment and being in fluid communication with each of the sparger elements that are oriented longitudinally. 18. The system of claim 17, wherein each segment further includes an open mesh connecting the series of sparger elements together and maintaining the relative positioning of the sparger elements, primary air feeder line, and secondary air feeder line. 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the longitudinally oriented sparger elements are spaced about 3-6 inches apart. 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the segments are flexible and wound about a spool prior to deployment.