Oil Pollution Prevention of Natural Waters by Incident Early Detection on Oil Pipelines in Water Body Crossing Places

Abstract

Oil and oil products remain a widespread pollutant of water bodies on the territory of Russia. It is connected with the great length and complexity of the hydrocarbon transport pipeline network. The majority of pipelines are operated in conditions of bad climate and geography. The places of underwater oil pipeline crossings have the greatest risk of an accident with the probability of contaminating water bodies. Applied pipeline monitoring systems do not provide detection of early oil leak stages (less than 1 % of pipeline capacity). Pipeline section can be for a long time in this situation until emergency occurs, it can result in significant environmental damage. It is proposed to use screening method for early leak detection, based on aromatic fraction fluorescence response of oil and oil products in water. Fluorescent sensor operates in the excitation spectral region of 340 – 360 nm to reduce a signal dependence on the composition of oil and oil products. For indirect confirmation of oil contamination, it is suggested to use additional indicator – specific conduction (mainly connected with chloride ion concentration). The proposed screening control scheme for oil pollution prevention takes into account the composition of oil pipeline content and the content of organic and biological substances in the water body. This approach eliminates the influence of natural substances on the fluorescent response because this factor is taken into account in the background response. Early leak detection thanks to the screening system reduces rupture probability by at least one order. In addition, it will prevent oil pollution of water bodies and reduce environmental damage.