Author(s): H. Murat Cekirge; Steven L. Palmer
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Emulsion fuels are heavy hydrocarbon fuels that exhibit behavior in marine environments which is quite different than that observed for oil. When spilled, these fuels rapidly separate in the affected water body into a dissolved fraction that contains an emulsifier and a suspended fraction that contains the heavy hydrocarbon. The hydrocarbon does not have the cohesive properties exhibited by oil spilled into water, rather it forms a "cloud" of individual particles. Under prolonged quiescent conditions these particles can rise to the surface in sea water or sink to the bottom in fresh water. However, in either case, an increase in the energy state of the water can rapidly remix the particles into the water column. In this paper, a method for modeling emulsion fuel spills in marine environments is discussed. The physical and chemical processes that would take place in such a spill are examined. The mass transfer and chemical transformations in the modeled system are described as random phenomena to allow prediction of risks due to uncertainties associated with a spill.
Year: 1997