Making light work of oil containment

Whereas oil booms typically have to be manually laid out by tug or workboat to contain an oil spill, SP Marine in Gothenburg has developed an automatically deploying oil boom which cuts down the response time, limiting the impact of the spill and the potential ecological trouble that follows.

It works via an unmanned craft which follows a pre-programmed course controlled by an onboard GPS navigation system till it docks at the far-side quay. The boom follows behind unwinding from a carousel, resulting in the oil spill being captured very quickly.

The joy of this robotised boom deployment is that it’s on stand-by 24/7, ready to launch at the press of a button within seconds of any oil spill detection, leaving a less pressured, less costly mopping up operation.

SP Marine developed the system in cooperation with the port of Gothenburg for use in its energy ports but the technology is catching on and others, such as CMP in Copenhagen Malmoe Ports and Petroport in Stenungssund, are following suit.