Different Types of Oil Skimmers
Floating and Fixed Oil Skimmers for Industrial Applications
Floating, Fixed, and Mounted Skimmers
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Floating Oil Skimmers
These skimmers float on the water surface and can generally recover oil in gallons per minute (GPM).
Fixed / Mounted Skimmers
These usually require a mechanical installation, more permanent and often part of a process. Generally recovers oils in gallons per hour (GPH).
Floating Weir Oil Skimmer
These are f ree floating on the waters surface……. put it where you want it to pull in floating oil, debris, plastic, duckweed, algae and anything else that floats, and is flowable. The FWS is connected to a hose connected to a pump on shoreside. Your p ump or vacuum system pulls suction from the skimmer sump (camlock coupler or flanged outlet ). With only one moving part, the hinged weir this one is hard to screw up. Works great with a vac truck or AOD pump or hose pump but will give you a LOT of water to deal with when you’re getting close to the interface .
Very portable. Flow rates from 10- 15 00 GPM. It’s automatically self adjusting and flow controlled. Never needs manual adjustment…EVER . You could take this skimmed product and run it into a separator or tank, and decant water back to pit/tank? This skimmer is actually powered by your suction pump…and it works with ANY pump that can pull suction.
From briefcase size to 5’ x 3 ‘ — with up to a 8” outlet…… they all operate exactly the same way. Rock solid mature technology and it’s Bubba Proof!
Floating Drum Oil Skimmer
These sit right in the water — and are very well engineered, rugged heavy duty skimmers in sizes that start off weighing about 100 lbs. (with hose) and can skim from 20 to over 100 gallons per minute when they are in heavy oil. This is the tool of choice for heavy skimming. Dimensions from 2 x 3′ to 3 x 8′. Can even have an on-board pump. These will move a LOT of oil fast.
These can be air drive (your compressed air), BUT the hydraulic drive systems (electric or diesel powered) are way more powerful — and will actually pull a whole pond’s worth of contiguous oil right into the skimmer. Of course, the hydraulics cost more, but oh do they work GREAT! Entry level $5K. A variety of pumps could be used to pump the oil from the sump. We can furnish it as a whole dedicated Oil Spill Response packaged skimmer system, with pump and hoses with quick connects etc. ……….for plug and play operation. This is a selective skimmer that will give you VERY little water.
Belt Oil Skimmer
These are fixed and mounted in one location — and work well when the oil is touching the belt, BUT no touch, no skim! Being motor driven they lift the oil from the surface to the wipe-off blades/scraper. Then the oil flows by gravity to some type of receptacle for transfer to? If you have to lift the oil very high, it does allow some oil to run back down the belt before it gets to the top where the wiper/scraper blade is. And so it goes. But, eventually you do get the oil. Belt sizes from 1-8″ wide and lengths to 100′ ft. available with multiple heads (belts) with recovery rates to 50 GPH or more. Electric powered usually. Very reliable equipment — the belt is the consumable item here. This is a SELECTIVE skimmer and will give you little water to deal with.
Rope Mop Wringer Oil Skimmer
Tube Oil Skimmer
ASH Pond Surface Skimmer (APSS)
ASH Pond Surface Skimmer (APSS) This is the super size of our SkimOIL ® floating weir skimmer (FWS). With a VERY wide weir this skimmer can run up well over 1000 GPM of water…..and the laminar surface flow keeps the water moving fast over the waterfall weir and into the sump….without disturbing whatever solids are settled out. This APSS has the most horizontal surface influence over the incoming liquids and the floating weir acts almost like a rudder keeping the flow close to the surface while not distrubing the settled out stuff under the water.
Steel Industry Oil Skimmer (SIS)
Steel is the toughest environment for oil skimmers because of all the extremes of heat, solids, grease, lack of maintenance and/or adjustment.
SkimOIL ® ’s SIS is a line of skimmers that are HARDENED specifically for the steel industry and the tough working conditions. Our FWS and FDS style skimmers are built tough, rugged and simple enough to survive the world’s toughest environments.
MiniHAWG and SteelHAWG
The MiniHAWG floating drum skimmer is designed as an extremely portable and robust drum skimmer. One (1) 12” diameter by 12″ long oleophilic drum is capable of recovering hydrocarbons at rates of up to 600 gallons per hour. depending on the viscosity of the oils. Air drive.
SkimOIL ® ‘s line of drum skimmers are designed for both portability and extreme durability on the toughest jobs. The SteelHAWG 2 each 18” diameter by 36″ long oleophilic drums and is capable of recovering hydrocarbons at rates of up to 70 gallons per minute. This easily deployable unit is ideal for inland and marsh spills, since it is capable of operating at water depths as shallow as 3”.
Sheen-Skimmer (FSS)
This is a great commercial or light industrial floating drum skimmer, that can run on 12 volts or 110 VAC….and even has it’s own built-in pump. This is light duty equipment that can give you 2 GPM of oil…..or it can be set to creep slowly and pull in sheen. This is based on the most efficient floating drum skimmer (FDS) technology in the world…..but is a lighter version and not as robust as our other skimmers. Consider though…this thing can run for probably 8-10 hours on a car battery…..you can get a lot of sheen in that time. You might not even need the pump….? Ask…
Big Ass Belt Oil Skimmer (BABS)
BABS is a serious heavy duty belt skimmer or system. With belts from 8-24” wide this BABS can deliver over 150 GPH of heavy oil and built to last forever.
BABS is over-engineered for HEAVY Duty work. The motor and the belt are enclosed in heavy steel framework that mounts directly over where oil accumulates.The belt and tail-pulley framework can be made to extend down…..to 30’. This is NOT a rinky dinky commercial grade skimmer….this is BABS.
Smart Automatic Floating Weir Oil Skimmer (SAWS)
Originally designed for hydro dams to go down into very deep wells and automatically skim and separate oil from water and pump the oil up to the surface —automatically. With onboard pumps, controls, and monitoring, the SAWS automatic weir oil skimmer is fully programmable. The Auto-weir floating skimmer will automatically detect, engage, accumulate and off load oil. What makes the Auto-weir floating skimmer smart and automatic is a programmable PLC which controls the basic operation, monitors conditions and initiates preventative maintenance. All functions can be customized for site-specific operations including reporting for compliance requirements. This system is also available as the “ not so smart dumb cousin”—without the automation—it’s still a great way to skim oil without the hassle and risk s of discharging or otherwise dealing with the water.
SBR Decanter - Surface Skimmers
The SBR decanter is a key component within a sequencing batch reactor ( SBR ) system, removing clarified effluent from the basin during the decant phase of the operational cycle. … Each cycle typically consists of three main phases; aerate, settle and decant. SkimOIL ® ’s SBR Decanter is based on our simple automatically self adjusting floating weir skimmer (FWS) technology. This decanter is perfect for retrofitting into an old system…………increasing production by up to 10%. The floating SBR decanter….operates at any level since it is not rotated into the fluid on a pre-determined arc. It’s BUBBA PROOF, as there are no external controls. With a Single Point Control effluent control valve……….the SBR Decanter automatically self adjusts to the decant rate.
Moon Pool Oil Skimmer System (MPS)
Moon pool skimmers are usually floating weir skimmers (FWS) simply because any oil on the surface of the moonpool is captive and not going anywhere in this vertical shaft. A simple non selective skimmer (FWS) will skim the surface oil and simply allow the water to go back to source (the moon pool) which ultimately acts like an oil water separator (OWS).
Slotted C-Pipe Surface Oil Skimmer
The slotted pipe type skimmers have been around since Archimedes……….and are the simplest form of a surface or oil skimmer. It is simply a pipe partially submerged at the water level you want to maintain. This pipe has 30 degrees of open area….that when rotated down to the liquid level….allows the liquid to flow away down the pipe. These are industrial dinosaurs that are usually found to be dead in the water since the turning mechanism usually winds up being ignored to death…and freezing up. At SkimOIL ® we have a VERY nifty RETROFIT C-Pipe Skimmer Kit, that can be designed and built off site………….trucked in and installed in place of the old dead systems.
First Response Oil Skimming Systems (FROSS)
This is the gear that you have and keep dedicated to Emergency Response to oil spills.
We have been putting response systems together for over 20 years. Having almost every oil skimming technology known to man …. allows us the objectivity to get you what you want and need……not just limited to the stuff we have on one shelf. Let SkimOIL ® put together your custom First Response Oil Skimming System.
Frack Tank Oil Skimmer System (FTOSS)
Frack Pack Skimmer Systems have just and only the gear you need to be able to keep oil on the water, under control. You already have everything contained in a heavy duty steel tank….? We can give you the tools (skimmer) to get the oil to where it needs to go.
Monitoring- Recovery Well Oil Skimmer (MRWOS)
These belt driven skimmer units are stand mounted over the well pipe opening…..and the belt reaches down thru the pipe and thru the below grade oil, gets coated with oil, rotates back to the surface where a scraper blade shaves the oil off the belt which then can gravity flow to your tank or ? These are slow processes and recovery rate is purl ey a function of viscosity of the oil. If you’re skimming diesel…..you’re going to be a while. Oftentimes………this type of remediation goes on for years…..we have some customers who have been skimming the same well for over 5 years. These are a solid hands off technology that can easily work unattended over long periods of time.
Floating Grinder Skimmer
Some skimmer applications call for removing floating junk including vegetation that may or may not be in oil. The grinder skimmer is a derivative of our regular floating weir skimmer except with VERY sharp teeth. Spill situations often involve cleaning up oil that is in a lake or river in floating and semi-submersed vegetation, algae, seaweed, moss, sticks, trash, plastic, fish and ducks. This self-contained skimmer and grinder pump combination system can be used for skimming or removing all types of floating stuff including oil.
We mount the sewage grinder pump right on the skimmer so that the suction and the VERY sharp teeth are right in the sump area. If the floating junk will flow or can be coaxed into the skimmer and if it’s not made of metal or kryptonite—the grinder pump skimmer can be made to handle it.