Abstract
The oil spill accident of Nakhodka in 1997 made many persons (around 400 to 500 thousands) work hard to remove emulsified heavy oil to clean the coasts. They suffered from viscous oil because the conventional oil recovery equipment was not good for the oil of such viscosity of 500Pa·s. They had to use dippers and buckets by their own labor, because the access of heavy machinery to the coast from land or sea was difficult due to irregular terrain conditions and shallow water depth. This paper describes a labor saving oil recovery system for viscous heavy oil on the water surface in front of the beach. The system is able to skim oil from water/oil mixture which contains emulsified heavy oil. It is also able to transport separated oil for long distance without blockade. The performance of the system is equivalent to 150 persons while only 10 persons are necessary for operation. These results have been confirmed by pool test using emulsified heavy oil and operation test at sea.
