Oil is a necessity in the industrial society and a major element of our lifestyle. In fact, production and consumption of oil and petroleum products are increasing, and the risk of oil pollution is increasing accordingly.

1. Oil is a necessity in the industrial society and a major element of
our lifestyle. In fact, production and consumption of oil and
petroleum products are increasing, and the risk of oil pollution is
increasing accordingly.
OIL SPILLS

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OIL SPILLS
INDEX
1. Causes.
2. Environmental impacts.
2.1. Effect on humans.
2.2. Effect on birds.
2.3. Effect on mammals.
2.4. Effect on fish.
2.5. Effect on plants.
2.6. Effect on Wildlife Habitat and Breeding Grounds.
3. Solutions.
3.1. Booms and skimmers.
3.2. Dispersants.
3.3. Bioremediation.
3.4. Mushrooms and hair.
3.5. Tractor beam.
4. Prevention.
5. References.
DONE BY:
Andrew Achraf William
Toka Mohamed Rashad
Ahmed Hatem el Sharkawy
Anas Jalal Sulaiman
Abdelrahman Amr el Adawy
Mariam Emad

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1. CAUSES
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into
the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is
a form of pollution. The term is usually applied to marine oil spills,
where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may
also occur on land.
The movement of petroleum from the oil fields to the consumer
involves as many as 10 to 15 transfers between many different modes
of transportation, including
tankers, pipelines, railcars,
offshore platforms, drilling
rigs, wells and tank trucks.
Oil is stored at transfer
points and at terminals and
refineries along the route.
Accidents can occur during
any of these transportation
steps or storage times.
In conclusion, it is important to study spill incidents from the past
to learn how the oil has affected the environment, what cleanup
techniques work, and what improvements can be made.

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2. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Oil spills can affect animals and plants in two ways: from the oil itself and
from the response or cleanup operations. Understanding both types of impacts
can help spill responders minimize overall impacts to ecological communities
and help them to recover much more quickly. Ultimately, the severity of
environmental damages caused by a particular oil spill depends on many
factors, including the amount of the oil spilled, the type and weight of the oil,
the location of the spill, the species of wildlife in the area, the timing or
breeding cycles and seasonal migrations, and even the weather at sea during
and immediately after the oil spill. But one thing never varies: oil spills are
always bad news for the environment.

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2.1. Effect on humans:
An oil spill represents an immediate fire hazard, for example
the Kuwaiti oil fires1
produced air pollution that caused respiratory
distress for many Kuwaitis and
those in neighboring countries,
and the fire resulting from the
Lac-Mégantic derailment2
that
killed 47 and destroyed half of
the town's center. Spilled oil
can also contaminate drinking
water supplies. Contamination
can have an economic impact on tourism and marine resource
extraction industries. For example, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
impacted beach tourism and fishing along the coast.
1
The fires were started in January 1991 during the gulf war.
2
It occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, in Quebec-Canada on July 6, 2013. It happened due to the
explosion of tank trucks.

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2.2. Effect on birds:
Any oil spill in the ocean is a death sentence for sea birds. Some
species of shore birds may escape by relocating if they sense the
danger in time, but birds such
are likely to be exposed to oil as
they float on the water’s surface.
Oiled birds can lose the ability to
fly, dive for food or float on the
water which could lead to
drowning. Oil interferes with the
water repellency of feathers
leaving them vulnerable to
hypothermia3
or overheating.
Some studies have suggested
that less than one percent of oil-
soaked birds survive, even after cleaning.
As birds groom themselves, they can ingest and inhale the oil on
their bodies. While ingestion can kill animals immediately, more often it
results in lung, liver, and kidney damage which can lead to death. Bird
eggs may be damaged if an oiled adult sits on the nest. Oil spills also
damage nesting grounds, which can have serious long-term effects on
entire species. For example, The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon offshore
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, occurred during prime mating and nesting
season for many bird and marine species, and the long-term
environmental consequences of that spill won't be known for many
years. Oil spills can even disrupt migratory patterns by contaminating
areas where migrating birds normally stop. For example, the Exxon
Valdez4
oil spill killed somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000
seabirds, plus a number of shore birds and bald eagles.
3 Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below 35.0 °C.
4 It’s an oil tanker that spilt 38 million gallon of oil near Alaska in 1989.

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2.3. Effect on mammals:
Oil spills frequently kill
marine mammals such as
whales, dolphins, seals and
sea otters. The deadly damage
can take several forms. The oil
sometimes clogs the blow
holes of whales and dolphins,
making it impossible for the
animals to breathe properly and disrupting their ability to communicate.
Oil coats the fur of sea otters and seals, reducing its insulating effect,
and leading to fluctuations in body temperature and hypothermia.
Animals who rely on scent to find their babies or mothers cannot
due to the strong scent of the oil. This causes a baby to be rejected
and abandoned, leaving the babies to starve and eventually die. The
ingestion of oil causes dehydration and impairs the digestive process.
Animals can be poisoned, and may die from oil entering the lungs or
liver. Oil can also blind an animal, leaving it defenseless.
Even when marine mammals escape the immediate effects, an oil
spill can cause damage by contaminating their food supply. Marine
mammals that eat fish or other food that has been exposed to an oil
spill may be poisoned by the oil and die or can experience other
problems.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill killed thousands of sea otters,
hundreds of harbor seals, roughly two dozen killer whales and a dozen
or more river otters. Even more troubling in some ways, in the years
after the Exxon Valdez oil spill scientists noted higher death rates
among sea otters and some other species affected by the oil spill, and
stunted growth or other damage among other species.

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2.4. Effect on fish:
Fish can be impacted
directly through uptake by
the gills, ingestion of oil or
oiled prey, effects on eggs
survival. Adult fish may
experience reduced growth,
enlarged livers, changes in
heart and respiration rates,
fin erosion, and
reproductive impairment when exposed to oil. Oil has the potential to
impact spawning success as eggs of many fish species are highly
sensitive to oil toxins.
The shrimp and oyster fisheries along the Louisiana coast were
among the first casualties of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon
offshore oil spill. Similarly, the Exxon Valdez oil spill destroyed
billions of salmon and herring eggs. Those fisheries still have not
recovered.

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2.5. Effect on plants:
Marine algae and seaweed responds variably to oil, and oil spills
may result in die-offs for some species. Algae may die or become
more abundant in response to oil spills. Although oil can prevent the
growth of marine plants, most vegetation appears to recover after
cleanup.
2.6. Effect on Wildlife Habitat and Breeding Grounds:
The long-term damage to various
species, and to the habitat and nesting
or breeding grounds those species
depend upon for their survival, is one
of the most far-reaching environmental
effects caused by oil spills. Even many
species that spend most of their lives
at sea -such as various species of sea
turtles- must come ashore to nest. Sea
turtles can be harmed by oil they encounter in the water or on the
beach where they lay their eggs, the eggs can be damaged by the oil
and fail to develop properly, and newly hatched young turtles may be
oiled as they scurry toward the ocean across an oily beach.

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3. SOLUTIONS
No two oil spills are the same because of the variation in oil types,
locations, and weather conditions involved. For example, Light oils are
very volatile, so they usually don't remain for long in the aquatic or
marine environment, typically no longer than a few days. If they spread
out on the water, as they do when they are accidentally spilled, they
will evaporate relatively quickly. In contrast, very heavy oils like bunker
oils, which are used to fuel ships look black and may be sticky for a
time until they weather sufficiently, but even then they can persist in
the environment for months or even years if not removed. The timing of
an oil spill and the weather conditions have a great impact upon the
severity of the effects of a spill. Winter weather may hamper cleanup
and recovery efforts.
In open-water marine spills, the primary response objectives are:
 To prevent the spill from reaching shore.
 To reduce the impact on marine life.
 To speed the degradation of any unrecovered oil.
There are several ways to clean up oil spills, we will talk about
some of them in details.

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3.1. Booms and skimmers:
Contain the spill with booms and collect it from the water
surface using skimmer equipment. There are various types of
booms that can be used either to surround and isolate a slick, or
to block the passage of a slick to vulnerable areas such as the
fish-farm pens or other sensitive locations.
Boom types vary from inflatable neoprene tubes to solid, but
buoyant material. Most rise up about a meter above the water
line. Some are designed to
sit flush on tidal flats while
others are applicable to
deeper water and have
skirts which hang down
about a meter below the
waterline. Skimmers float
across the top of the slick
contained within the boom
and suck the oil into storage
tanks on nearby vessels or
on the shore. However, booms and skimmers are less effective
when deployed in high winds and high seas.

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3.2. Dispersants:
Dispersants are chemical
agents similar to soaps and
detergents that help break
up an oil slick into very
small droplets, which dilute
throughout the water. While
this does not remove the
spilled material, smaller oil
particles are more easily
biodegraded and it provides
a measure of protection for sensitive habitats threatened by a
surface slick. Dispersants are sprayed onto spills by specially
equipped boats or planes.
Dispersants act by reducing the surface tension that stops oil and
water from mixing. Small droplets of oil are then formed, which helps
promote rapid dilution of the oil by water movements. The formation
of droplets also increases the oil surface area, thus increasing the
exposure to natural evaporation and bacterial action. Dispersants
are most effective when used within an hour or two of the initial spill.
However, they are not appropriate for all oils and all locations.
Successful dispersion of oil through the water column can affect
marine organisms like deep-water corals and sea grass.

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3.3. Bioremediation:
Using naturally present
microorganisms to clean up oil
spills makes use of bacteria
living in the ocean who actually
“eat” the oil when it enters their
natural habitat. Most of the
components of oil washed up
along a shoreline can be
broken down by bacteria and other microorganisms into harmless
substances such as fatty acids and carbon dioxide. Adding sulfate or
nitrate fertilizers to the microorganism population causes them to
multiply beyond their natural state and eat up the toxic metals at up
to five times the rate that they would without assistance.
However the effectiveness of this technique depends on factors
such as whether the ground treated has sand or pebbles and
whether the fertilizer is water soluble or applied in pellet or liquid
form.

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3.4. Mushrooms and hair:
By using mats made from
mushrooms and hair offer a totally
organic and effective way to sop up oil
on water. The technique isn’t just
speculation either, it was actually
utilized in the Cosco Busan oil spill5
.
3.5. Tractor beam:
The tractor beam is the
most advanced solution to oil
spills, yet it wasn’t put to
practical use. In 2014
physicists at The Australian
National University (ANU)
have created a tractor beam
on water, providing a radical new technique that could confine oil
spills. The team, led by Dr. Horst Punzmann, discovered they can
control water flow patterns with simple wave generators, enabling
them to move floating objects at will.
5 The Cosco Busan oil spill occurred on 7 November 2007 between San Francisco and Oakland, California.

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6. PREVENTION
Technical solutions are helping us to reduce the risk of oil leaking
from pipelines into the ocean and
lessen the impact if this occurs. We
have buried underwater pipelines
several meters under the seabed so
that floating ice does not damage
them. Systems are designed to detect
any drop in pressure in the pipes and
activate multiple valve systems to stop the oil flow.
In order to reduce the chances of an oil spill from tankers,
engineers have developed new ship designs with double and even
triple hulls. The oil is stored in the most interior hull, so that if there was
a leak, it would be captured in the next outer hull.
Prevention requires continuous assessment and improvement in
every phase of operation in which oil is produced, transported, stored,
and marketed. Significant resources are invested in order to develop
equipment specially designed to prevent oil spills during each phase.
Exploration and production facilities use advanced technologies
and materials that incorporate multiple back-up safety systems, such
as blowout preventers. Pipelines employ computers, electromagnetic
instruments, and ultrasonic devices that detect and report
vulnerabilities in order to proactively maintain and repair equipment.
Throughout training, employees are educated with prevention
measures aimed at minimizing the risk of spills and ensuring safe
operations. Employee training is a vital part of preventing spills; it
reinforces process safety and promotes the safe use of equipment.

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After all the effort tin trying to prevent oil spills, spill incidents have
declined from 246 in the 1970s to 33 in the 2000s. However, as long
as there is the potential for a spill, industry will not be satisfied, and will
continue to invest in innovative and more effective prevention
equipment.

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5. REFERENCES
http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-
spills/how-oil-harms-animals-and-plants.html
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/owcn/oiled_wildlife/index.cfm
http://www.fws.gov/home/dhoilspill/pdfs/dhjicfwsoilimpactswildlifefactsh
eet.pdf
http://www.sciencedump.com/content/scientists-create-tractor-beam-
water
http://tryengineering.org/sites/default/files/lessons/spillsolutions.pdf
http://www.spillcontainment.com/oil-spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Oil-Spills-Impact-on-the-
Ocean.html
http://environment.about.com/od/petroleum/a/oil_spills_and_environme
nt.htm
http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/arctic/oil-spill-prevention-
reponse.html
http://www.oilspillprevention.org/oil-spill-prevention
http://www.oilspillprevention.org/oil-spill-cleanup/ocean-oil-spill-cleanup