Small-scale in-situ burning (ISB) experiments with chemically confined crude oils on water

Small-scale experiments were performed in a custom-made laboratory rig to study the in-situ burning (ISB) behaviour for oils that were chemically confined using herders. The burning efficiency, the global mass burning rate and the regression rate are all reported. Two commercially available herding agents (ThickSlick 6535 and OP40) were used to thicken two crude oils (Alaska North Slope (ANS) and Grane), and their respective artificial water-in-oil emulsions. The burning behaviour during ISB was found to be affected by the oil type and weathering degree. However, no dependencies were observed on the burning behaviour regardless of the herder type. The chemical confinement resulted in quantitative lower burning results (burning efficiency, mass burning rate and regression rate) as compared to physical confinement. Scaling dependencies were also found as a function of the oil amount or oil diameter with contrasting qualitative dependencies between the results from experiments with respectively chemical and physical confinement.