Research article Scale-up considerations for surface collecting agent assisted in-situ burn crude oil spill response experiments in the Arctic: Laboratory to field-scale investigations Robin J. Bullock, Srijan Aggarwal * , Robert A. Perkins, William Schnabel Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Northern Engineering, College of Engineering and Mines, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA article info Article history: Received 29 August 2016 Received in revised form 13 December 2016 Accepted 18 December 2016 Keywords: In-situ burn Oil spill Herder Scale-up Surface collecting agents abstract In the event of a marine oil spill in the Arctic, government agencies, industry, and the public have a stake in the successful implementation of oil spill response. Because large spills are rare events, oil spill response techniques are often evaluated with laboratory and meso-scale experiments. The experiments must yield scalable information sufficient to understand the operability and effectiveness of a response technique under actual field conditions. Since in-situ burning augmented with surface collecting agents (“herders”) is one of the few viable response options in ice infested waters, a series of oil spill response experiments were conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2014 and 2015 to evaluate the use of herders to assist in-situ burning and the role of experimental scale. This study compares burn efficiency and herder application for three experimental designs for in-situ burning of Alaska North Slope crude oil in cold, fresh waters with ~10% ice cover. The experiments were conducted in three project-specific constructed venues with varying scales (surface areas of approximately 0.09 square meters, 9 square meters and 8100 square meters). The results from the herder assisted in-situ burn experiments performed at these three different scales showed good experimental scale correlation and no negative impact due to the presence of ice cover on burn efficiency. Experimental conclusions are predominantly associated with application of the herder material and usability for a given experiment scale to make response decisions. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill resulted in increased efforts towards enhancing knowledge and preparedness for oil spills globally. One risk, in particular, that has been identified is the possibility of oil spills in Arctic waters (NRC, 2014) especially with increased warming in the Arctic leading to more possibilities for oil exploration. The Arctic is both a unique and challenging environ- ment. Its uniqueness is generally derived from its culture, ecosystem, climate, and remoteness (NRC, 2014). Each of these characteristics presents challenges when planning for and responding to an oil spill. One response method, in-situ burning, has been cited as a potentially viable option for rapid and effective response to oil spills in icy waters (Buist et al., 2006; Fingas, 2011). Since the 1970s, experiments have been conducted on the use of in- situ burning in open and ice-infested waters (Buist et al., 2014; Fingas et al., 1995). Several studies have also been performed on the use of surface collecting agents (“herders”) to enhance collec- tion of surficial oil spills and aid in-situ burning (Buist et al., 2011, 2013, 2014). Decisions about the choice of oil spill response methodology are based on a net environmental benefit analysis, which might result in the question, will burning reduce the harm of oil compared with other response options? Since observations of the efficacy of herder augmented in-situ burning are limited, the results from laboratory and meso-scale experiments are needed to estimate the efficacy of proposed burns. Despite an extensive dataset from these efforts, relatively few studies have included experiments of burn effec- tiveness in ice infested waters at different scales, conducted by same personnel and using same analytical techniques to enhance comparability (Buist et al., 2014). The use of chemical surfactants (herders), such as shell oil herder and corexit, to contain oil slicks on the surface of open waters and with some amount of ice coverage has been evaluated in the laboratory setting employing different size containment vessels (Buist et al., 2011; Pope et al., 1985). The physical and * Corresponding author. PO Box 755860, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5860, USA. E-mail address: saggarwal@alaska.edu (S. Aggarwal). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.12.044 0301-4797/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Management 190 (2017) 266e273