AFTI: The Permanent Boom Specialists

One of the advantages of PyroBoom®, and the stainless steel PocketBoom, is the ability to be used in the water without deleterious effects. All booms that require water-cooling, whether active or passive, become waterlogged masses weighing vastly more wet than dry. The drying time may be several days to weeks. Even them, the biological mass accumulated in the boom fabric may well make it unpleasant or unsanitary to handle. Once burned, almost 50% of the original value of the PyroBoom® can still be recovered and re-used, in the field and without any special tools.

Perhaps the strongest attribute of the PyroBoom® is its ability to be used just like a conventional boom. No special handling, launching, or support equipment is required to put it into service. In the heat of a recovery project, the last thing an operator needs is failure of some support equipment or component that could lead to immediate shutdown or catastrophic failure of the system.

Fail-safe is another word associated with PyroBoom®. Eventually, some of the above surface barrier is going to degrade from heat exposure. This is a slow process and does not occur in a catastrophic manner such as with air-inflated booms, whether active or passively cooled.

One joint development project in the planning stage is to combine the fast water capability learned on GlobeBoom® and combine it with PyroBoom® with the possibility of being able to sweep oil at 3 knots and conduct in-situ burning at the same time. With 95% disposal effectiveness already demonstrated by burning when the appropriate conditions exist, the incentive is to be able to burn at sea instead of conducting an expensive dispersant application or mechanical recovery. Of course, there are many scenarios confronting the responder, and in-situ burning is only one. However, if the equipment is available, many more response options become available.


  [BACK]   [1 2 3 4 5]   [NEXT]    [BACK TO ARTICLES LIST]

  [ABOUT THE AUTHOR]