A Bucket Brush Oil Skimmer (also known as an Excavator-Mounted Skimmer Bucket or Oil Recovery Bucket) is a specialized hydraulic attachment used to clean up oil spills in water or marshlands. It looks like a standard digging bucket but features rotating brush wheels inside or on the leading edge. Rotary bristle technology for remediation: their operational theories diverge. The Bucket Brush Oil Skimmer functions as a selective phase separator; it exploits the adhesive properties of viscous fluids to recover hydrocarbons from an aqueous environment, effectively filtering the target pollutant while rejecting the carrier fluid (water)
- How it works: The unit is dipped into contaminated water. The rotating brushes are oleophilic (oil-attracting). As they spin through the water, oil clings to the bristles while water falls away. Scrapers then remove the oil from the bristles and direct it into a collection sump/hopper within the bucket, where it is pumped away.
- Primary Use: Marine oil spill response, cleaning harbor walls, or retrieving heavy crude oil from pits and shoreline waters. It handles liquid/viscous hazardous waste.
Usage Areas
- Offshore Areas
- Arctic Regions
- Docks, Terminals, and Piers
- Rivers and Shorelines
Features
- Aquatic / Fluid Interface: Operates at the air-water boundary or within multiphase fluid columns (e.g., oil-on-water emulsions).
- Viscous Hydrocarbons: Targets immiscible fluids (crude oil, bitumen) utilizing specific gravity differences and viscosity.
- Physicochemical Adhesion: Relies on oleophilic (oil-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repelling) surface properties of the bristles to selectively separate hydrocarbons from the aqueous phase.
- Selective Phase Separation: Achieves high selectivity, typically recovering <2% free water by exploiting the interfacial tension between the oil and the brush media.
- Stationary or Vector Deployment: The attachment is typically dipped or articulated into a fluid body via a hydraulic arm (excavator/crane) rather than driven across a surface.