Oil spills happen for different reasons. The main reason behind oil spills is human carelessness. Other reasons are leakage or break down in equipment of oil tanker, blast in the deep water oil rig. When oil spills happen it affects the nearby wildlife very adversely. After the oil spills has happened it is necessary to be contained as early as possible with minimum damage or loss. This could be achieved with oil spill booms.
Oil spill booms are kind of temporary floating barriers which are used to contain spill oil. They are made to use for stopping spill oil to spread further to the shorelines and associated pollution. They also help the rescue team to recover the oil easily. The booms absorb the spill oil and concentrate that into thicker layers of its surface. Different cleaning up methods can be used very effectively to collect the oil from the booms. Highly absorbent polypropylene fillers are used to make the booms and they are very effective for absorbing hydrocarbon based liquids such as oil, petrol, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene.
In an oil-spill site the booms is the first piece equipment which is used to remove oil. It is used on the surface of the water in a way that the oil is prevented from spreading. The booms go down about 18 to 48 inches from the water surface. If the waters stay calm, theses booms work perfectly. But most of the cases, the booms are used for multiple layers.
Sometimes for the very odd situation the oil is burned to contain the oil spill. In this case fire proof oil spill booms are used. These booms are same effective in ponds, lakes, rivers or oceans. It is also useful even on the land. Really oil spill booms have proven very essential in containing oil spills and saving numerous marine creatures’ lives.
To read more on this topic visit:
http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/05/25/how-bps-oil-booms-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-dont-work/
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/oil_booms_work_in_limited_way.html