Qualification of oil-spill treatment products – Adopting the Baffled Flask Test for testing of dispersant efficacy in the UK. Issue 2 (April 2018) - Sühring, Roxana
Abstract: The UK Marine Management Organisation (MMO) tasked the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) with reviewing the current UK dispersant efficacy testing procedures. The aim was to identify possibilities to increase standardisation, improve health and safety performance and explore harmonisation possibilities with international dispersant efficacy testing procedures. The US EPA 'Baffled Flask Test' (BFT) was adopted, implemented and validated as a new standard method in the UK. The outputs from this study suggest that dispersant efficacy results from the adopted BFT test and the currently used protocol are in a similar range and results presented by the US EPA. As a result, the transition to the adopted BFT test will require minimal changes in the assessment of the results or reporting and increase harmonisation between tests used in the UK and North America. Highlights: The US EPA BFT method was adopted as new standard for dispersant testing in the UK. The new method provides comparable results to the LR448 protocol. The new BFT method facilitates global harmonisation for dispersant efficacy testing. The new robust and sensitive method reduces the use of hazardous solvents.