Oil recovery apparatus
A marine vessel is provided with a closed tank for gravity separation of oil and water. A boom extending laterally from the vessel sweeps the surface of a body of water on which the vessel floats and a skimmer associated with the boom skims surface oil and some water into a conduit leading to a manifold extending around the upper inner periphery of the tank. The manifold discharges upwardly into the tank through a multiplicity of ports, the tank preferably being completely filled with oil and/or water. Separated water is withdrawn from the bottom of the tank through a plurality of coalescing filters having large exposed coalescer screens. Hoods over the coalescers direct flow thereto to ensure uniform distribution of water and oil globules over their surfaces and direct coalesced oil toward the upper region of the tank in a concentrated stream. A pump withdraws the water from the tank and discharges it into the ambient water. Flow produced by the pump can be reversed for backwashing the coalescers. A detector in the tank senses the level of the interface between separated water and oil, and when that interface reaches a predetermined lower level flow in the separator, it is interrupted, after which flow is reversed until the interface rises to a desired upper level.
- Assignee:
- National Marine Service, Inc.
- Patent Number(s):
- US 4053414
- OSTI ID:
- 7213426
- Resource Relation:
- Patent Priority Date: Priority date 26 Nov 1975, Netherlands
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OIL SPILLS
CLEANING
SKIMMERS
DESIGN
FILTERS
PETROLEUM
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SHIPS
WATER
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION CONTROL
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
520200 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)