Orca selects products from Gecko

PRODUCT SELECTION CRITICAL FOR RESPONSE TEAMS
How Australia's leading response team selects absorbents

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Renowned spill response company ORCA selects products from Gecko Cleantech®
They prefer three-meter booms
They use pads to quickly identify whether unknown liquids are hydrocarbons

When it comes to spill response, The Oil Response Company of Australia (ORCA) has some of the most experienced staff in the world, with in-depth knowledge about all sorts of tools and methods for both maritime and terrestrial spill response. In collaboration with the Australian government, ORCA maintain stockpiles of equipment all over Australia. Dale McClelland is their Manager of Operations. “By selecting the best products available,” he says, “we can address any type of spill.”

"Sorbents should be easy to handle after they've done their job. That is why we prefer three-meter booms"

To absorb hydrocarbons in water, ORCA’s team works with sorbents from Gecko Cleantech®. “Sorbents are a critical tool in all sorts of responses and clean-ups,” Dale explains. “They can absorb up to 20 times their own weight, but also have to be easy to handle after they’ve done their job. For this reason, the three-meter booms are selected. Longer booms get too heavy when saturated and will release fluid upon handling.”

ORCA also prefers other G-Tex® sorbents. “We love the pads Gecko provides,” Dale continues. “We use them for sheen that other equipment can’t collect”.

The most common spill is usually fuel from vessels in marinas. However, around 20% of incidents are other kinds of liquids. These might be difficult to identify. Monovalent sorbents are designed to only absorb hydrocarbons, and will not absorb organic fluids like palm oil or similar, which makes hydrocarbon-only pads perfect for quick identification in an incident. “We ask the people on location to test with the pads,” Dale commented. “If they won’t absorb it, we then know the spill is non-hydrocarbon.”

ORCA also provides training, and an incident clean-up service. Selecting the right sorbent for the substance being collected has proven critical and minimises time, costs, and environmental impact.