AMSA will be conducting a study on very low sulphur fuel oils throughout 2021, to determine how these might behave if spilled into the Australian marine environment.
As part of its role in responding to marine oil spills and supporting the National Plan for Maritime Emergency, AMSA is collecting very low sulphur fuel oils (VLSFO) from visiting ships to analyze their properties, to better understand the behaviour, from these new oil products. The ships sampled will come from a wide range of ports of origin, across both sides of the North Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and Europe, as well as some from Australian ports.
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Every oil, whether fuel or cargo, is different, which means that when they spill, they may require quite different strategies to effectively clean up and the key to mounting an effective response to a pollution incident is knowing how the pollutant will behave once it is spilled, according to AMSA.
Our intention is to understand the nature of any potential pollutants so we can protect the community and spill responders, minimize harm to the environment and maximize clean-up effectiveness.
Therefore, to determine how fuel oils might behave if spilled into the Australian marine environment, AMSA will have the oil analyzed for density (how well it will float), pour point (at what temperature it will spread on the water), viscosity (how well it spread or evaporate), asphaltene content (whether it will thicken up with when mixed with water).
Based on the initial seven samples analyzed from international ships visiting Australia in 2020, it was found that the new VLSFOs:
- Are diverse and variable in their manufacture and presentation.
- Appear to offer lower responder hazard risks from explosion or vapours when compared to earlier higher sulphur fuel types carried on ships prior to 2020.
- Appear to be likely to behave differently once spilled, compared to pre-2020 oils, but because of their diversity of character and properties, more analysis is needed to be sure for each type.
- Appear to be slightly easier to contain and clean-up than pre-2020 fuel oils, so existing clean-up technologies are likely to be more effective. The small sample size, limited number of places the fuels were made, and limited number of tests completed, mean that the next phase of sampling and testing will bring much more definitive results.
