Possibilities and limitations for the clean up of oil spills at sea

The general aim of each countermeasure in the case of oil spills in waters must be to remove the discharged oil as rapidly and as completely as possible from the marine environment. Such measures can only be effective as long as the oil remains at the water surface and as long as the oil forms a cohesive slick. The effectiveness of the means very much depends on the basic physical principle applied for the removal and of their integration into a carrying vessel. This paper will demonstrate that technical solutions can be affiliated to four general physical principles. It will be shown that they differ in their possibilities to separate oil from water and their efficiency in general. Their physical backgrounds will be discussed and their effectiveness with respect to oil spill clean up evaluated.