In situ burning of oil spills

For more than a decade NIST conducted research to understand, measure and p redict the important features of burning oil on water. Results of that rese arch have been included in nationally recognized guidelines for approval of intentional burning. NIST measurements and predictions have played a major role in establishing in situ burning as a primary oil spill response metho d. Data are given for pool fire burning rates, smoke yield, smoke particula te size distribution, smoke aging, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon cont ent of the smoke for crude and fuel oil fires with effective diameters up t o 17.2 m. New user-friendly software, ALOFT, was developed to quantify the large-scale features and trajectory of wind blown smoke plumes in the atmos phere and estimate the ground level smoke particulate concentrations. Predi ctions using the model were tested successfully against data from large-sca le tests. ALOFT software is being used by oil spill response teams to help assess the potential impact of intentional burning.