BSEE to Support Oil Spill Research Projects

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) 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), 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 9th, 2015. 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 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. Government agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy as well as private industry and oil spill response organizations from around the world train their emergency response personnel with real oil and their own equipment at BSEE’s Ohmsett facility in Leonardo, N.J.