Dec 20 2001
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No: 8 Dec 20 2001 |
| Success for Foilex TDS 150 Skimmer in French waters Foilex’s French agent, Le Floch Depullotion, was assigned the complicated task of cleaning up the oil spilled from the container ship Melbridge-Bilbao. The ship ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France in mid-November at ebb tide, which meant that the rescue efforts were made even more difficult by the tidal waters.
“We started the job on Saturday by containing the leakage using oil booms,” reports Daniel Guyomarc'h, who is an engineer at Le Floch. Le Floch began skimming and pumping operations by Sunday evening. They opted to use Foilex 30 tonnes/hour TDS 150 Coast Skimmer, which is the newest and smallest version in Foilex "Twin Disc Screw" skimmer serie.
This gave CEPPOL an opportunity to test their skimmer under these harsh conditions in combination with a Polutank oil barge. Within two weeks the cleanup work was finished, with extremely good results – the damage was fortunately minimal. |
The vessel was towed toward shore and into a dry dock in Brest, where the tanks were drained into a contained area. The damage inspection showed a 20-meter tear in her hull, and loss of contents from two tanks.
“On Monday we stepped up our efforts by adding another 70 tonnes/hour TDS 200 Skimmer from Foilex, which we borrowed from