Applications of bubble curtains in marine oil spill containment: Hydrodynamic characteristics, applications, and future perspectives

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin 2023-09, Vol.194, p.115371-115371, Article 115371
• Main Authors: Feng, Xing, Zhang, Baiyu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bubble enhanced oil boom; Bubble plume; Marine oil spill; Oil containment boom; Pneumatic oil boom
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115371

Although the marine oil spill pollution issue does not bring us to flock in droves as the new emerging oceanic techniques like wave energy converters, remote operated vehicle (ROV), blue ammonia and green hydrogen, the huge pollution risks of the marine oil spills caused by man-made intentional discharge, old equipment, accidental leakage, war and other aspects should arouse our sufficient attention and concern. As the primary countermeasure of emergency response to a marine oil spill, rapid & efficient oil containment is crucial to limit the pollution scope and the subsequent recovery and treatment. Here, we summarized the existing investigations on oil-spill containment with a marked emphasis on the applications of bubble curtains and their working mechanisms. The critical research progress and trends about the remediation techniques and the application of bubble curtains in marine environments were briefly introduced. The article thoroughly analyzed the basic working mechanism of the bubble curtains in oil spill containment, the technical difficulties of the existing methods, the potential application prospects of coupling with the traditional oil containment booms and the critical scientific problems to be studied in the future. Regarding the issues involving insufficient oil retention performance and inconvenient deployment of the existing traditional oil boom under complex and variable sea conditions, the performance and structural optimization of bubble curtain enhanced oil containment boom will get the top priority in developing the next-generation oil containment techniques. •Brought out the basic ice management failure modes of ice boom•Summarized the current researches on conventional OCBs and BOBs•Introduced the latest application of bubble curtains in marine environment with emphasis as oil barriers•Analyzed the working mechanism of the bubble curtains in oil containment and the potential application prospects and challenges