1 Answers
An oil skimmer is a device that is designed to remove oil floating on a liquid surface from oil spills. The effectiveness of a skimmer is highly dependent on the roughness of the surrounding water that it is working on, the more choppy the surrounding wake and water the more water the oil skimmer will take in rather than just oil. Skimmers are either self propelled, used from shore or operated from vessels depending on the oil spill scenario. Depending on these specific designs they are used for a variety of applications other than oil spills such as a part of oily water treatment systems, removing oil from machine tool coolant and aqueous parts washers, and collecting fats oils and greases in wastewater treatment in food manufacturing industries.
Oil skimmers were used to great effect to assist in the remediation of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. Oil skimmers are different from swimming pool sanitation skimmers that are designed for a related but same purpose.