Experimental Studies of the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Oil Dispersants Using the „Baffled Flask”

Abstract

The study presents one of the many research methods used worldwide to evaluate the effectiveness of oil dispersants, which are one of the alternative solutions for removing crude oil and its derivatives from open water. The described procedure is based on experiments using the Baffled Flask Test (BFT), where the degree of oil dispersion is determined by comparing the total mass of oil introduced into synthetic seawater with the mass of oil found in the water column beneath the upper oil layer after conducting the test under specified experimental conditions. Laboratory tests were carried out to assess dispersant effectiveness using the Baffled Flask Test method for two commercially available dispersants: EXOdis OS6 (a product designed for use in open water bodies) and Solubol (a food-grade product composed of naturally derived ingredients). Both dispersants were used to disperse crude oil from the Magdalena reservoir (Carpathians, Poland) in the 3,3% wt. solution of NaCl. The effectiveness of EXOdis OS6 dispersant was 69.07%. However, Solubol, although also demonstrating the ability to disperse the analyzed crude oil, had a significantly lower efficiency of 34.79%.