DTU
The first Ph.D. thesis has been completed, in which the fire dynamics and fire chemistry of crude oils burning on water were studied. From the cover summary:
"In-situ burning of spilled crude oil is a promising oil spill response method for potential oil spills in the Arctic. Forecasting the amount of oil that is removed during a crude oil fire on water (i.e. the burning efficiency) is, however, challenging due to a lack of theoretical understanding of the fundamental fire science behind crude oil fires on water. It is shown herein that the burning efficiency is primarily governed by the diameter of the crude oil pool fire and the complexity of the multicomponent fuel, both of which influence the ignition, flame spread and extinction processes."
Research is now continuing on the ignition and flame extinction processes of in-situ burning of crude oil and the scaling effects between small scale laboratory experiments and large scale field operations.
WPI
The second Ph.D. thesis has also been completed, in which the detailed interactions between ice and burning oil were studied. The mechanisms influencing the melting of ice and formation of lateral cavities during in-situ burning of oil adjacent to ice are analyzed through laboratory scale experiments and theoretical analyses in order to create a tool for predicting the lateral cavity length. In particular, the length of the lateral cavity is one important feature of the lateral cavity which can be used to assess the success of in-situ burning operation.
DCE
The work at DCE is focusing on the environmental effects of in-situ burning, primarily from the burned oil residue that remains on the water after the fire extinguishes.