Film
Competitors
oil spill response interventions are today realized using boats of different dimensions, ships or pontoons which solve the problem if they act immediately and in idoneous conditions; synthetically critical points mainly are:
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intervention rapidity and immediacy, that is vehicle speed
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capability to operate with rough sea and wind, the conditions which have usually caused the problem
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operativity in shoals and near the coast, in rivers, lagoons, etc.
Although Europe actively supports research in this direction, the only project truly innovative and potentially effective seems to be the vessel called OSH, which is explicitly designed for interventions in open sea and then OSH is fully complementary to HoverSpill.
To date there are no worldwide valid methodologies for costal environmental recovery comparable with HoverSpill: examples proposed are limited to installation of special equipments (like baskets or skimmers) on boats and pontoons, that can not operate near the shores of the coastline, or to manual approaches implemented on the mainland.
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SOA RTD ACTIVITIES
Innovation is the key of success of SOA: RTD departments continuously explore alternative application of hovercrafts, new technologies and multidisciplinary co-operations.
HoverSpill Project is our last innovative approach, aimed to the area restoration after the oil-spill disaster.
Following some experiments that demonstrate the feasibility and the potential effectiveness, SOA is collaborating to a wide and international technological project aimed to study and develop an innovative procedure for oil spill emergencies: the first prototype of light hovercraft showed to be the best “platform”, with the greatest immediacy and efficiency of reaction and effectiveness during the remediation activities.
Future upgrade will foreseen to put onboard an innovative double oil-water separation system and to provide the vessel with a multipurpose power supply.
This project is considered of great interest and a couple of enterprises of different countries are cooperating to its development.
Two are the project driving ideas:
First of all, the oil spills hits beaches and shoals which can not be easily reached by traditional vehicles or vessels, nor by land nor by sea, due to the lack of water depth or for the muddy land.
Then the restoration approach must be based on a specific, speedy (>30Kn/h), air cushion vehicle, completely amphibious and capable of working on land, water, in areas with high and soft mud, which can be used as a pontoon in floating conditions but also capable of high speed during transfer, easy to transport by road at high speed thus indifferent to weather/sea conditions, which can be parked on land or on beaches, close to potential oil spill dangers, with no need of harbours or other infrastructures.
On the other hand, at open sea, there are a need of all whether and cheap vessel that forthwith limits the oil spills: for this the hovercraft could be positioned on ships or oil tankers deck and used during oil transfer operations for a preventive action too.
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HoverSpill prototype
oil spill fast response project
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