While chemical dispersants are a powerful tool for treating spilled oil, their effectiveness can be limited by oil weathering processes such as evaporation and emulsification. It has been suggested that oil photo-oxidation could exacerbate these challenges. To address the role of oil photo-oxidation in dispersant effectiveness, outdoor mesocosm experiments with crude oil on seawater were performed. Changes in bulk oil properties and molecular composition were quantified to characterize oil photo-oxidation over 11 days. To test relative dispersant effectiveness, oil residues were evaluated using the Baffled Flask Test. The results show that oil irradiation led to oxygen incorporation, formation of oxygenated hydrocarbons, and higher oil viscosities. Oil irradiation was associated with decreased dispersant efficacy, with effectiveness falling from 80 to <50% in the Baffled Flask Test after more than 3 days of irradiation. Increasing photo-oxidation-induced viscosity seems to drive the decreasing dispersant effectiveness. Comparing the Baffled Flask Test results with field data from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill showed that laboratory dispersant tests underestimate the dispersion of photo-oxidized oil in the field. Overall, the results suggest that prompt dispersant application (within 2-4 days), as recommended by current oil spill response guidelines, is necessary for effective dispersion of spilled oil.
Keywords: Baffled Flask Test; co-solvents; ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry; oil photodegradation; photoproducts; viscosity.