• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.219-228
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• 2013

In Korea, more than 300 oil spill accidents occur every year. Despite the frequency, only a small pool of data is available on the initial effect of oil spill on macrobenthic fauna inhabiting rocky shores. The aim of this study was to analyze the variation of macrobenthic fauna composition and community structure on rocky shores, and understand the impact of oil on rocky shore organisms after the Hebei Spirit oil spill. Field surveys were carried out in five regions dose to the wreck site in January, April and September 2008. Polluted sites after the Hebei Spirit oil spill showed that biological index consistently decreased for 9 months limited to breeding and recruitment of organisms by spilled oil. Macrobenthic community was subdivided into 3 groups by species elimination and differences between density of major dominant species: enriched biota community under a relatively stable environment, the second with relatively low ecological index and the last with poor community. In this study, species number did not clearly reflect the effect of oil on the rare and mobile species. However, mean density, biomass and community structure showed the effect of oil by considering breeding activity, decline in recruitment and variation pattern with time.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.795-799
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• 2008

We have studied bioremediation of effective microorganisms on crude oil spill in Taean, west-coast of Korea. Oil contaminated soil samples were collected on December 14, 2007, seven days after the Hebei Spirit oil-spilled accident. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was measured to evaluate the effectiveness of effective microorganisms (EM) which were composed with yeast, photosynthetic bacteria and lactic acid bacteria on oil degradation. TPH concentration before EM treatment was 323.8 mg/kg, whereas TPH concentrations on 2 days after EM treatment and that of control (without EM) was 102.1 mg/kg and 170.6 mg/kg, respectively. On six days after EM treatment TPH was 91.3 mg/kg and that of control was 127.7 mg/kg. Percentages of degraded crude oil were 47.3% without EM and 68.5% with EM, 60.6% without EM and 71.8% with EM on 2 and 6 days after EM treatment, respectively. These results clearly showed that the application of effective microorganisms toward oil-contaminated soil was quite useful to degrade crude oil spill. These results were derived from the effects of biostimulation of microbial media nutrients and bioaugmentation of effective microorganisms. If we carefully apply these effective microorganisms, it can be a useful bioremediation method to recover oil-contaminated marine ecosystems.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2024

Oil spills pose significant threats to marine ecosystems, human health, socioeconomic aspects, and coastal communities. Accurate real-time predictions of oil slick transport along coastlines are paramount for quick preparedness and response efforts. This study used an open-source OpenOil numerical model to simulate the fate and trajectories of oil slicks released during the 2007 Hebei Spirit accident along the Korean coasts. Six combinations of input parameters, derived from a five-day met-ocean dataset incorporating various hydrodynamic, meteorological, and wave models, were investigated to determine the input variables that lead to the most reasonable results. The predictive performance of each combination was evaluated quantitatively by comparing the dimensions and matching rates between the simulated and observed oil slicks extracted from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data on the ocean surface. The results show that the combination incorporating the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for hydrodynamic parameters exhibited more substantial agreement with the observed spill areas than Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), yielding up to 88% and 53% similarity, respectively, during a more than four-day oil transportation near Taean coasts. This study underscores the importance of integrating high-resolution met-ocean models into oil spill modeling efforts to enhance the predictive accuracy regarding oil spill dynamics and weathering processes.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.654-662
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• 1996

Bacterial strains which degrade crude oil were isolated by liquid culture from oil-spilled soil, and four isolates were selected among them. The strain Hl7-1 was finally selected after testing emulsifying activity and oil conversion rate. The strain Hl7-1 was identified as a Nocardia sp. based on the test for morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics. It appears to be highly specialized for growth on crude oil in minimal salts medium since it showed preference for oil or degradation products as substrates for growth. It was found that it could grow on at least fifteen different hydrocarbons. The optimum cultural and environmental conditions were seeked. Cell growth and emulsification activity as a function of time were also determined. Crude oil degradation and the reduction of product peak was identified by the analysis of remnant oil by gas chromatography after 3 days of cultivation. Approximately 83% of oil were converted into a form no longer extractable by organic solvents.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.289-294
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• 2022

Oil contained in domestic and industrial wastewater or marine spilled oil gives rise to severe environmental pollution issues such as water pollution and ecosystem destruction. The membrane filtration method as one of representative oil/water separation strategies has technological challenges such as membrane fouling and low separation rate. In this work, we devise a 3D-printed microhydrocyclone for oil/water separation by utilizing a digital lighting processing-based 3D printer. We demonstrate that the 3D-printed microhydrocyclone can effectively separate oil and water phases from oil-in-water emulsion.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.90-95
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• 2011

On April 20, 2010, a well control event allowed hydrocarbon (oil and gas) to escape from the Macondo well onto Deepwater Horizon (DWH), resulting in an exploration and fire on the rig. While 17 people were injured, 11 others lost their lives. The fire continued for 36 hours until the rig sank. Hydrocarbons continued to flow out from the reservoir through the well bore and blowout preventer (BOP) for 87 days, causing an unprecedented oil spill. Beyond Petroleum (BP) and the US federal government tried various methods to prevent the oil spill and to capture the spilled oil. The corresponding responses were very challenging due to the scale, intensity, and duration of the incident that occurred under extreme conditions in terms of pressure, temperature, and amount of flow. On July 15, a capping stack, which is another BOP on top of the existing BOP, was successfully installed, and the oil spill was stopped. After several tests and subsea responses, the well was permanently sealed by a relief well and a bottom kill on September 19. This paper analyzes the subsea responses and engineering efforts to capture the oil, stop the leaking, and kill the subsea well. During the investigation and analysis of subsea responses, information was collected and data bases were established for future accident prevention and the development of subsea engineering.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.11 no.2 s.23
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• pp.41-49
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• 2005

In general, the criminal responsibility of seaman should always be directly assumed by the seamen, according to the principle of self-incrimination. Therefore, the only possible countermeasures for the criminal responsibility of seamen may be to reduce the responsibility by using criminal procedures (ex. the warrant substance examination system, the review system of legality for confinement as much as possible. Another possibility is to reduce the penalty through the revision of the law. In detail, concerning the problem of fine, the maximum fine for oil spill accidents by criminal negligence is KRW 30,000,000 under the current Ocean Pollution Prevention Act, and when an oil spill occurs, the maximum fine tends to be levied regardless of the amount of the spilled oil; thus, it is judged that grading the fine according to the amount of spilled oil may be worth considering. Regarding P & I's payment of fine, contrary to general belief, it is only possible to make up the loss when P & I takes up the legal responsibility or acknowledges its payment. In order to solve the problem, it is possible to consider the option of introducing new collective insurance program or mutual aid system. Also, as seamen are not specialists in legal issues, the ship owners' association or the marine afficers' association need to develop some program through which they can receive systematic assistance from legal specialists including lawyers when they encounter any legal problems (ex. free legal aid programs for farmers and fishermen). Finally, it may be possible to establish enact new laws or revise the existing Act on Special cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents to insert a new section on marine accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.103-108
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• 2010

In this study, tank truck incidents of road transport of hazardous materials to experimental investigated the potential fire hazard. Real scale fire was to perform experiments for on this qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Particularly affected by radiant heat from the flames caused and damage estimates range investigated accordingly. Flame temperature, internal temperature of tank and emitted radiation from the flames was investigated. The flame of light oil spill caused a fire at a temperature of about $300^{\circ}C$ high in comparison with the methanol by combustion of diesel and methanol, according to the difference, the flame duration changes varies depending on the Burning rate, amount of radiant heat flux from light oil fire was 4 times increases compared with fire of methanol. Depending on spill locations(kinds of road surfaces, absorbing rate) and the longer the duration of the flame important factors for the internal temperature of tank truck rise was found. Dirt roads than paved road accident in a fire caused by leakage of hazardous was could the higher the damaged. Therefor, Fire suppression activities should be required in particular to be around.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2006

The study was to review methods by which a ship can unfold and tow an oil boom by attaching the opening apparatus to an oil boom through experiments. The shape and dimension of the opening apparatus were designed with the measurement value of the towing tension load of the oil boom and the dimension of winch drum of the oil boom installed in the ship considered. For the field experiment to identify the performance of the opening apparatus, opening apparatuses were prepared to have the dimension of $3.0m^2$ and $6.0m^2$ which is 91% and 75% of the calculation value for type B and C respectively. As a result, T(kg), the value of tension in type B oil boom according to the towing speed(v) change when two ships are towed together were proved to be $T=920v^{1.1}\;and\;T=500v^{0.9}$ in case the distance is 100 m and 50 m. Based on the result, the dimension of the opening apparatus for type B and C oil boom was calculated as $3.3m^2$ and $8.0m^2$ respectively. When unfolding and towing by attaching the opening apparatus and 200 m of towing line at both ends of type B and type C oil boom, the maximum width of the opening apparatus was shown as 114 m and 95 m in average(width of opening/total length of oil boom: 33% and 57%) in the towing speed of 1.5 kt. It was evaluated that the opening apparatus could concentrate the spilled oil in a good performance. However as far as the increase rate of oil boom opening width according to the length of the towing line is debatable, the increase rate is remarkably reduced when it is lengthened from 100 m to 150 m and to 200 m although it showed extreme increase of 31% and 40% when the length of the towing line was changed from 50 m to 100 m. Therefore, it is inferred that the towing line should be maintained more or less 100 m to get good spread efficiency of the opening apparatus. Additionally, if the towing speed is faster than 1.5 kt, the opening width was narrowed because of the reduced spread efficiency and the shape of the oil boom can be unstable because of the partial sinking of the oil boom, run over waves, or flap of skirt. Thus the reasonable towing speed can be within 1.5 kt for the operation of the opening apparatus.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.205-211
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• 2012

According to the Hebei Spirit incident, 12,547kl of crude oil was spilled into the sea and a total of approximately 40,000 households was damaged. Also, eleven cities and counties including "Taean" were designated as a Special Disaster District by government. Large oil pollution incidents cause severe impact on the change of the surrounding environment as well as destruction of the natural environment of damaged areas. This study analyzes the impacts on the surrounding environment of damaged areas caused by Hebei Spirit oil pollution incident, focusing on the largest damaged county called Taean. Survey was performed with items which are changes in population and local economy, effects on public health, social conflicts and etc. The result of analysis can be used as an important factor to forecast the impact on a damaged area in case of future oil pollution incidents and to establish effective policy of government.