Thousands of gallons of diesel oil lost from grounded Transo

Thousands of gallons of diesel oil lost from grounded Transo

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Who me ?

Original Poster:

7,455 posts

211 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-is...

Lot of blokes on here work on rigs, so perhaps might have a better answer.

According to the news item More than 12,000 gallons of fuel have been lost from the grounded rig, with "A UK government official overseeing the operation to remove the rig from Dalmore on Lewis said most of the escaped diesel oil had evaporated."

Sorry, but I don't see it ,as last time I had a pin hole in a fuel return line ( diesel) , I had spots of fuel under the bonnet for weeks.

ATG

20,488 posts

271 months

Monday 15th August 2016
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Forgive me for not reading the link, but I'd hazard a guess that most of the diesel will have spilled onto the sea surface. If so, it will have spread out extremely thinly as it is a light oil. There's a classic experiment where you put a drop of oil onto water and measure how far it spreads out. It ends up one molecule thick and therefore allows you to estimate the size of a molecule. Millikan's oil drop experiment. And I think he might have used a pond on Clapham Common(??). Anyway, the diesel is likely to have spread out extremely thinly giving it a colossal surface area compared to its volume. That would allow it to evaporate pretty quickly.

Nicholas Blair

4,096 posts

283 months

Tuesday 16th August 2016
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Why wasn't the fuel drained prior to movement as it was off to be scrapped anyhow.

sherman

13,071 posts

214 months

Tuesday 16th August 2016
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Ballast?

S2red

2,507 posts

190 months

Tuesday 16th August 2016
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Expensive ballast

Gramrugby

543 posts

207 months

Tuesday 16th August 2016
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The diesel would already have been onboard from it's previous operations, and it would also require it for power generation.

mikecassie

608 posts

158 months

Tuesday 16th August 2016
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From all the time I ever repaired tractors during my apprenticeship diesel never evaporated that I can recall. It'll be spread out so thinly on the surface it won't show but it's a heavy oil compared to petrol which will evaporate.
It would still need fuel for power during the transit to Malta, once in it's final resting place any residual fuel would be removed. It's 'only' 46m3 or thereabouts of fuel which has been lost, or that's the amount they are telling us which in the grand scheme of things is a small loss of fuel. Some vessels burn 80-90m3 of fuel a day very easily. An old drill rig like that would be quite thirsty I imagine.

Who me ?

Original Poster:

7,455 posts

211 months

Wednesday 17th August 2016
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Nicholas Blair said:
Why wasn't the fuel drained prior to movement as it was off to be scrapped anyhow.
My thoughts, but as it's about 12000 gals ,it seems more than a small amount. I was looking at some form of "recycling" theory .

ATG

20,488 posts

271 months

Friday 19th August 2016
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mikecassie said:
From all the time I ever repaired tractors during my apprenticeship diesel never evaporated that I can recall. It'll be spread out so thinly on the surface it won't show but it's a heavy oil compared to petrol which will evaporate.
It would still need fuel for power during the transit to Malta, once in it's final resting place any residual fuel would be removed. It's 'only' 46m3 or thereabouts of fuel which has been lost, or that's the amount they are telling us which in the grand scheme of things is a small loss of fuel. Some vessels burn 80-90m3 of fuel a day very easily. An old drill rig like that would be quite thirsty I imagine.
it's just a question of how quickly it evaporates. You can smell diesel, therefore it is evaporating. If it spreads out thinly enough, which it will do on water, it will evaporate pretty quickly because the surface area will be vast compared to the depth of the spill.

Who me ?

Original Poster:

7,455 posts

211 months

Sunday 21st August 2016
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I'm still wondering at at what temperature will diesel evaporate?
Then I look at the sea temperatures in the waters from Norway , and up around the top of Lewis.Or perhaps I'm still in "DIESEL( as opposed to Whisky ) GALORE" mode, whenever I think of the utter hebrides.

hidetheelephants

23,780 posts

192 months

Monday 22nd August 2016
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[quote=Who me ?]I'm still wondering at at what temperature will diesel evaporate?
Then I look at the sea temperatures in the waters from Norway , and up around the top of Lewis.Or perhaps I'm still in "DIESEL( as opposed to Whisky ) GALORE" mode, whenever I think of the utter hebrides.
[/quote]
Can you smell it? If you can it's evaporating.

jamieduff1981

8,022 posts

139 months

Monday 22nd August 2016
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Evaporating is probably the wrong word. Diesel will disperse in seawater rather quickly.