08 April 2014, News Wires – The regulatory US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is offering grant money for research into developing technologies to respond to oil spills in icy Arctic conditions.
The Department of Interior agency said in a “broad agency announcement” on Friday that it is seeking “new and innovative mechanical technologies” for cleaning up oil spills in drift ice conditions.
“Collection systems should be able to efficiently collect oil while operating in drift ice conditions that might be found in an Arctic environment,” the announcement added.
BSEE’s oil spill response research programme is now soliciting brief white papers proposing solutions to clean up Arctic oil spills, the most promising of which will be asked to submit full proposals.
The agency has made up to $600,000 available to launch the new research, though it does not expect any single award to exceed $200,000. BSEE will select up to three designs for prototype development and testing.
They will be tested at Ohmsett the National Oil Spill Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility in December 2015, and BSEE will pay for the facility costs.
After testing, prototype designs may be selected to receive additional federal funding for further development.
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