Abstract: A method of removing oil from the surface of a body of water is provided. The method comprising collecting oil on the surface using a plurality of floating booms moved by a vessel floating on the surface, skimming oil collected by the booms using a moving continuous belt carried by the vessel and removing from the belt oil which has been skimmed from the surface.

Abstract: A subsurface hydrocarbon capture apparatus and method having a plurality of filtration segments laterally connected, the filtration segments being filtration panel members suspended from floating boom members, the filtration segments joined in a circular or spiral configuration.

Abstract: An apparatus having flotation ballasts, a flotation platform and on the flotation platform, an intake equipment, such as a screen, check valve and/or pump intake and a coupling for a discharge pipe. In an embodiment of the present invention comprises, there are a plurality of substantially symmetrical flotation ballasts, each having a ballast chamber. The composition of the flotation ballast may be made of a material having a density appropriate for the fluid in which it is to be submerged. The method includes the steps of using an apparatus as herein described to ascend and descend intake equipment.

Abstract: An oil skimmer conveyor includes an inclined frame attached to a boat or other structure. Upper and lower rollers are connected to the frame, and a continuous belt is supported by the rollers. The lower roller extends into the water, and is at least partially submerged in water. The belt is more permeable to water than to oil, and rotates about the rollers. Water passes through the belt, and oil is carried out of the water by the belt and collected in the boat.

Abstract: This is a new oil spill response process made up of a group of new inventions and or technologies that are new to the oil spill response industry. When used in any combination, these new inventions compliment each other forming a new process for cleaning up oil spills. These new inventions can work by themselves, and or they can work with any of the older equipment, techniques, and or processes for cleaning oil spills.

Abstract: A system for recovering floating oil from the surface of a body of water includes a sump vertically movably mounted between a pair of spaced interconnected floating pontoons. A hydraulic system is coupled to the sump for lowering the sump into the water below the pontoons to a predetermined depth. The forward wall of the sump is angled down and back from an upper edge and a blade is hingedly attached along the upper edge of the forward wall. In use, the sump is lowered into the water until the blade is at the proper slice depth to separate floating oil from the surface of the water as the pontoons are drawn through an oil spill in a forward direction. The separated oil is deposited immediately onto the angled forward wall where gravity causes it to accelerate downwardly along the angled wall. This “gravity drop” tends to pull or urge additional oil across the blade and onto the angled forward wall to enhance the separation of floating oil from the surface of the water.

Abstract: A system and method for remediating a body of water and collecting suspended and dissolved solids therefrom are provided. The system includes a water-impervious lining positionable in a depression in or adjacent a body of water. The lining and depression define a treatment vessel, which includes a treatment portion, an outlet portion for containing treated water, and an outflow weir between the treatment portion and the outlet portion. Water to be treated is transported from the water body to the treatment portion. An entrapment element is delivered and mixed into the transported water, the entrapment element for capturing suspended and dissolved solids in the transported water and effecting a separation between the captured solids and water cleansed therefrom. The captured solids can be removed from the treatment basin, and the cleansed water can move through a channel in the outflow weir into the outlet portion.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for passively generating a current flow in a body of water is disclosed. The passive water circulating apparatus has an aeration plate having a central opening; a plurality of flotation members joined to the aeration plate, the plurality of flotation members being adapted and disposed for maintaining buoyancy of the aeration plate above a water surface; an uplift tube member having a central orifice in fluid communication with the central opening of the aeration plate; a concentrator member disposed at an end of the uplift tube opposite the aeration plate, the concentrator member having a bottom opening in fluid communication with an upper opening, the bottom opening being wider than the upper opening and the upper opening being connected to the uplift tube member; and a plurality of bio-substrates suspended from the concentrator member below the bottom opening, the plurality of bio-substrates providing a substrate for growth of microbes.

Abstract: An oil collecting apparatus and a corresponding method for collecting oil from the surface of water, the oil collecting apparatus includes a set of oil booms (3) coupled to form a long line of oil booms. The line of oil booms includes, at a distance from each other, a number of anchorage points (4) for anchoring the oil boom (3) onto the sea bed and, in addition, between the anchorage points and in conjunction with the oil boom there is an oil collecting station (5) for collecting the oil directed by the booms from the surface of water.

Abstract: The invention is a portable external modular filtering and contamination removal system for a ship. A plurality of non-fixed position modular filter assemblies filter and remove macro-, micro- and nano-particle contaminates ship-side. The filter assemblies may be vessel-based or port based. A floating access and maintenance unit provides easy access to the filter assemblies. The filter assemblies move in cooperation with each other to spread the discharge over multiple units. A flow collecting and diverting apparatus seals against the ship to prevent discharge from running down the side of the ship with a directional discharge to divert discharge to waiting filter assemblies. The filter assemblies may provide their own buoyancy, obtain some buoyancy from vertical support lines from the deck of the ship or shift the buoyancy needs partially or wholly to the floating access and maintenance unit.

Abstract: Systems and method for floating a capillary filter system in a fluid and filtering the fluid via capillary action are described. The floating filter system may include one or more floatation devices configured to provide suitable buoyancy to cause the floating filter system to float within the fluid to be filtered.

Abstract: A cleaning device for artificial pools comprises a flexible sheet formed from an oleophilic and hydrophobic material, and that is buoyant in water. In a preferred embodiment, the sheet is circular and is formed from a plurality of individual layers secured in overlapping relation to one another. Each of the layers comprises a fibrous mat composed of fibers of high melt-flow polypropylene.