Detection of oil within the water column

Abstract

This report summarizes the results of Phase I (Design Concept) of a Research and Development effort to develop a readily deployable system for the in-situ detection, identification, and characterization of submerged oil in the water column. The first phase of the project involves development and testing of three technological approaches to the detection problem. A system developed by NORBIT US Ltd. addresses the detection of hydrocarbons using the backscatter from acoustic signals from a Wide Band Multi-Beam Sonar (WBMS). A system developed by WET Labs, named the Fluorescent IN-situ Detection System for OIL (FINDS OIL), uses flow-through fluorometric measurements and fluorescent backscatter to identify and characterize petroleum hydrocarbons encountered by the instrument. A third system, also by Wet Labs, named Wide-angle-scattering Inversion to Detect Oil in Water (WINDOW), uses the scattering and refraction of light to determine the mass and volume concentration, droplet size and density of the entrained oil. The systems are described in terms of the basic technology, ability to detect and characterize oil, areal coverage, ease of data processing and display, ruggedness and deployability, as well as the challenges involved in preparing the system for Prototype Development and Testing.