Kvichak Marine Industries, USA, has recently delivered a nine-metre rapid response skimmer to the Environmental Safety & Health (ES&H) Department in Los Angeles. This new skimmer will join their existing fleet of Kvichak skimmers currently involved in the oil spill clean up effort in the Gulf of Mexico.
The rapid-response, shallow-water vessel is ideally suited for use on oil spills in waterways, bays, and harbours. The all-aluminium skimmer has a length of nine metres, a beam of 2.4 metres and a draught of 0.8 metres and is easily trailerable.
Adaptable to a variety of marine spill scenarios, this highly specialised vessel works well in many recovery configurations, from free skimming through towed-boom applications, and is able to recover a very wide range of spills from light sheens to very viscous weathered oil products.
The skimmer's oil recovery system includes a Kvichak/Marco Cl-1 Filterbelt oil skimming module, a Kvichak/Marco U-040 Capsulpump offload system with 15-metre hose, and a recovered oil capacity of 3,785 litres.
The recovered oil tank configuration allows segregation of small volume spills to simplify post-spill decontamination. Onboard hydraulic power is supplied by an under-deck diesel HPU.
