【英语科技】台湾巨型除油船有望帮助清理墨西哥湾漏油

Officials began testing Friday what they hope will become the world's largest oil skimming vessel, able to gulp up huge volumes of crude spewing in the Gulf of Mexico from the well owned by BP PLC.

If successful, the ship has the potential to take in as much oil-infused water in a day as smaller skimming boats have collected in two months.

The A Whale ship, owned by Taiwanese company TMT Group, is the length of 3½ football fields and 10 stories high. It is designed to work close to the source of the spill where the oil is more concentrated. The smaller skimmers work from nearer the shore to about three to five miles out, where the oil is fairly dispersed.

'The ship is the best hope to date for an effective clean-up,' said Edward Overton, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. He was asked by TMT to inspect the ship when it was docked in Norfolk, Va., last week.

Before the ship can be pressed into service full time, it must pass certain hurdles. The ship, a cargo vessel that was retrofitted at TMT's expense to help with the spill, hasn't been tested in real-world conditions, so it is unclear whether it can effectively ingest the thin crude that is flowing from the well, said BP spokesman Scott Dean. Chemicals called dispersants used to break down the oil also make it harder for the skimmers to pick up the oil.

Unlike smaller skimming boats-mostly converted fishing boats-that bring the oily water back to shore for disposal, the A Whale is designed to separate oil from the water and then discharge cleansed water back into the sea. The vessel could collect some 500,000 barrels of oily water a day.

EPA guidelines require that the discharged water contain no more than 15 parts per million of oil-a difficult standard to meet, said Prof. Overton. The federal on-scene coordinator can exempt the discharge from the Clean Water Act standard.

If the A Whale performs well, BP or the federal government could contract with TMT to work in the Gulf. TMT, a privately owned shipping company, invested tens of millions of dollars to turn the ship into a skimmer in Portugal and then sail it to the U.S. with a 32-man crew, according to Bob Grantham, project manager of TMT Offshore.

The day the Deepwater Horizon exploded, TMT CEO Nobu Su ordered the A Whale, a brand-new $160 million cargo hauler, to start sailing west from China, while he commissioned Hyundai engineers to devise a plan to covert it into a skimmer. The plans were worked out by the time the ship made it to a Portugal shipyard, where it was modified.

周五，官员们开始测试一艘巨型油污清理船，他们希望它将成为世界上最大的除油船，能够清理掉英国石油公司(BP PLC)墨西哥湾油井泄漏的大量原油。

如果试验成功，此船的油污水日处理总量有可能相当于小型除油船两个月的收集量。

这艘船名叫“鲸鱼号”(A Whale)，隶属于台湾海陆运输公司(TMT)，长度相当于3.5个美式足球场，高度相当于10层楼。此船将在漏油点附近、油污更为集中的区域工作。小型的除油船将在三至五英里外、距离岸边更近且油污相当分散的区域工作。

路易斯安那州州立大学(Louisiana State University)环境学荣誉教授欧弗顿(Edward Overton)说，到目前为止，这艘船是有效清除油污的最大希望。上周，鲸鱼号停靠在弗吉尼亚州时，他应台湾海陆运输公司之邀前去检查了这艘船。

在这艘船全面投入工作之前还必须通过几项障碍。英国石油公司发言人迪恩(Scott Dean)说，为了帮助解决漏油事件，台湾海陆运输公司自己出资把这艘货轮改造成了除油船，但此船尚未在真实条件下接受过测试，因此尚不清楚它能否有效分离不断从油井中流出的较稀的原油。由于使用了分散剂等化学制剂以分解海面上的石油，除油船收集油污时将更为困难。

小型除油船大多由渔船改造而成，它们必须把油污水带回岸上以供处理。与之不同，鲸鱼号能够进行油水分离并把清洁后的海水注回大海。此船每天能够收集约500,000桶油污水。

美国环境保护署(EPA)要求注回海中的水的含油率不得超过百万分之十五。欧弗顿说，这是很难达到的标准。联邦现场协调员可根据《净水法案》(Clean Water Act)的标准中止作业。

如果鲸鱼号除油性能良好，英国石油公司或联邦政府有可能与台湾海陆运输公司签约，让此船参与墨西哥湾地区的除油工作。台湾海陆运输公司是一个私营航运公司，据公司近海项目经理格兰瑟姆(Bob Grantham)说，这家公司花费了数千万美元在葡萄牙把这艘货轮改造成除油船，然后把船开到美国，船上共有32名水手。

在深水地平线(Deepwater Horizon)爆炸当日，台湾海陆运输公司首席执行长苏信吉(Nobu Su)命令造价1.6亿美元的全新货轮──鲸鱼号开始从中国出发向西航行，并委派现代公司(Hyundai)工程师制订计划以把它改造成除油船。计划完成时，鲸鱼号抵达葡萄牙的一个船坞，并在此进行了改造。