Study of the Geographical Boundaries for the Free Use of Dispersants

Abstract

Dispersants are chemical agents that reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water in order to enhance the natural process of oil dispersion in sea by generating larger number of tiny droplets that can be entrained permanently into the water column by wave mixing energy.
This study aims to serve as a model to follow when establishing the geographical boundaries for the use of dispersants in order to allow the response authorities to define which dispersion strategy should be take immediately after the incident. To this end, the conclusions of this paper will be based on the comparison between the results of the simulation model AREAS (Bergueiro and Domínguez, 2001), the simulation model DISPERSANTES (Bergueiro and Domínguez, 2001) and the boundaries for the free use of dispersants established by the French research centre CEDRE (Lewis and Merlin, 2006).