BSEE investing in oil spill response research

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has announced this week that it is soliciting proposals for oil spill response research projects and will be investing up to $6 million to support these projects in 2015.

In a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) released on the federal government’s business opportunities website, the bureau called for white papers focusing specifically on one of seven topic areas for proposed research covering oil spill response operations on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

The deadline for submitting white papers is February 9, 2015. The BSEE says that topics should be limited to the following:

– Innovative Methods to Remove Surface Oil under Arctic Conditions;
– Decanting Recovered Oil at Sea;
– Quantifying In-situ Burn Efficiency;
– Innovative New Uses of Chemical Herders to Enhance Oil Spill Mitigation Efforts;
– Develop an Innovative Dispersant Spray Drift Model;
– Determine the Effect of Various Deep-Ocean Conditions on Dispersant Effectiveness; and
– Evaluate Dispersant Effectiveness of Subsea Applications in Ocean Brine Pools.

BSEE is the principal federal agency funding offshore oil spill response research. The bureau says it supports a robust research program that includes operation of the National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, where many of today’s commercially available oil spill cleanup products have been tested.

[mappress mapid=”1085″]