Oil skimmers mainly include: weir type, belt type, dynamic inclined plane type, brush type, and vacuum type. Among them, weir type, belt type, dynamic inclined plane type, and brush type are used at sea; vacuum type is used for shoreline protection.
1. Weir Oil Skimmer (equipped with Haibiao 052)
The weir oil skimmer is one of the most commonly used oil skimmers. It uses gravity to allow oil to flow from the water surface into the oil collector and pumps the oil from the collector into a storage container. It is suitable for recovering medium and low viscosity oil spills in calm waters with wave heights less than 0.3 meters. Its characteristics include small size, light weight, simple structure, easy maintenance, high recovery speed, and wide applicability.
2. Belt Oil Skimmer ("Qinggang Environmental Protection No. 1")
The belt oil skimmer uses a rotating oleophilic adsorption belt to adsorb oil spills from the water surface, and the adsorbed oil is collected into the oil collector through scrapers or rollers. The belt oil skimmer mainly consists of an adsorption belt, scrapers (or pressure rollers), a transmission device, and an oil collector. It has the advantages of high recovery rate, high recovery efficiency, wide adaptability, and good wave-following performance. At the same time, it also has disadvantages such as complex structure, large size, the need for lifting equipment for operation, and high cost.
3. Dynamic Inclined Plane Oil Skimmer (Haibiao 12, Haibiao 24, and Offshore Oil 251)
The dynamic inclined plane oil skimmer mainly consists of a screw-type oil pump, a detachable dynamic inclined plane conveyor belt, a ship-mounted suspension support system, oil-resistant inflatable or solid floats, oil guide plates, piping systems, power stations, and automatic control systems. Its characteristics include a wide range of applicable oil viscosities, the ability to recover oil spills while moving, insensitivity to currents, suitability for oil layers of different thicknesses, minimal impact from floating debris, wide applicability, and high recovery efficiency and rate.
4. Brush Oil Skimmer (Korean professional oil spill response vessel)
The brush oil skimmer is a mechanical device that uses brushes to recover oil spills. It mainly consists of several groups or rows of brushes, scrapers, and an oil collector. Its working principle: oil spills adhere to the rotating brushes and are scraped off into the oil collector, then pumped into a storage device. Its characteristics include high recovery efficiency and rate, good wave-following performance, the ability to handle waves up to 1 meter high, and easy maintenance.
5. Vacuum Oil Skimmer
The vacuum oil skimmer, often called a "skimming head," is a device that uses a suction pump or vacuum pump to create a vacuum in a vacuum oil storage tank, recovering oil-water mixtures through the pressure difference at the skimming head. The vacuum oil skimmer has the characteristics of small operating device size, simple operation, portability, mobility, insensitivity to debris, easy maintenance, and low cost. 6. Disc Oil Skimmer
The disc oil skimmer is an oil spill recovery device that uses discs made of oleophilic materials to rotate in the oil-water mixture. When the discs rotate out, the adsorbed oil is scraped into the oil collector by scrapers and pumped to a storage container. Its advantages include good adaptability to light oils, high recovery efficiency, good adaptability to debris, simple maintenance, and wide applicability. 7. Rope Oil Skimmer
The rope oil skimmer uses a floating rope mop made of oleophilic materials of a certain length to adsorb oil spills from the water surface. The oil adsorbed by the rope mop is squeezed out through roller squeezing devices and stored in an oil collector. It has the advantages of good wave-following performance, high recovery efficiency, minimal impact from debris, large coverage area, easy maintenance, and low cost.
