Song Xing, Chen Bing, Liu Bo, Lye Leonard M, Ye Xudong, Nyantekyi-Kwakye Baafour, Zhang Baiyu
Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL Canada, A1B 3X5.
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL Canada, A1B 3X5.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Jan 18;56(2):835-844. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c04014. Epub 2021 Dec 22.
Oil spills in the Arctic have drawn dramatic attention in recent years. Frazil ice, as the essential formation of sea ice, may affect the effectiveness of dispersants during oil spill response and the associated behaviors of dispersed oil. However, these impacts remain poorly understood, limiting the appropriate usage of dispersants in ice-covered regions. Herein this work explored the effects of frazil ice on the dispersion effectiveness of two dispersants (Corexit 9500A and hydrolyzed shrimp waste) and the migration of dispersed oil within frazil ice. We discovered that frazil ice inhibited dispersion effectiveness by attenuating water velocity. Permeable frazil ice encapsulated 11-30% of dispersed oil, implying a lower oil bioavailability. We thus proposed and verified a microscopic mechanism to unravel the migration of dispersed oil toward permeable constrictions in frazil ice. We predicted the concentration of dispersed oil encapsulated in frazil ice using bed filtration theory and verified the prediction through experiments. Furthermore, the presence of frazil ice can lead to the breakup and coalescence of dispersed oil. Overall, our findings would facilitate the appropriate planning and decision-making of dispersant-based oil spill response and a better understanding of the fate of dispersed oil in the frazil ice-infested ocean.
近年来，北极地区的石油泄漏事件引起了广泛关注。作为海冰的基本组成形式，薄冰可能会影响溢油应急过程中分散剂的效果以及分散油的相关行为。然而，这些影响仍未得到充分理解，限制了分散剂在冰覆盖区域的合理使用。在这项工作中，我们探讨了薄冰对两种分散剂（Corexit 9500A和水解虾废料）分散效果的影响以及分散油在薄冰中的迁移情况。我们发现薄冰通过减弱水流速度抑制了分散效果。可渗透的薄冰包裹了11%至30%的分散油，这意味着油的生物可利用性较低。因此，我们提出并验证了一种微观机制，以解释分散油向薄冰中可渗透狭窄处的迁移。我们利用床层过滤理论预测了包裹在薄冰中的分散油浓度，并通过实验验证了该预测。此外，薄冰的存在会导致分散油的破裂和聚结。总体而言，我们的研究结果将有助于基于分散剂的溢油应急进行合理规划和决策，并更好地理解在受薄冰影响的海洋中分散油的归宿。
