In Situ burning of Arctic marine oil spills: Ignitability of various oil types weathered at different ice conditions. A combined laboratory and field study

Oil spills in ice filled and Arctic waters pose other challenges for oil spill response compared to open and temperate waters. In situ burning has been proven to be an effective oil spill response method for oil spills in ice filled waters. This thesis presents results from laboratory and field experiments where the ignitability of oil spill as a function of oil type and weathering conditions (time/ice) was tested.

The results show that the composition of the oil and the ice cover is important for the in situ burning time-window. The results were used to develop an algorithm that was implemented in a model, so it is possible to predict the operational time-window for in-situ burning.