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As part of the proposed pipeline expansion project for their facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, Kinder Morgan Canada-TransMountain Pipeline (KMC) requested that Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC), Polaris Applied Sciences (Polaris) and Witt/O’Brien’s conduct research to determine the behaviour of heavy petroleum oils when spilled into a marine environment.

From May 12 – 22, 2013, Aqua-Guard Spill Response Inc from Vancouver, British Columbia and two foreign oil skimmer manufacturers put their oil skimming systems through in depth diluted bitumen recovery tests at a Kinder Morgan Canada test facility in northern Alberta.

Each skimmer manufacturer was provided a test tank with approximately 700 litres of diluted bitumen which formed an oil surface thickness of 30mm. The water in the tank was conditioned with salt (20ppt) to match the salinity of Burrard Inlet. All of the tests were run according to ASTM standards.

"The Aqua-Guard RBS TRITON 60 oil skimmer head proved again that it is capable of recovering Diluted Bitumen from the surface of the water during an oil spill. The Kinder Morgan testing facility proved to be more than adequate and we found it very easy to operate in a safety conscious, well-organized environment” says Chris Doudican of Aqua-Guard.

Aqua-Guard supplied an RBS TRITON 60 brush oil skimmer head (including integrated patented U.S. 7,303,688 oil recovery technology) with an onboard screw pump powered by a diesel hydraulic power pack. All of the design, manufacturing and testing of Aqua-Guard's products take place in various facilities throughout the greater Vancouver area.

The same model skimmer was used extensively during the Kinder Morgan DilBit oil spill into Burrard Inlet in 2007 and was the only oil skimmer at that time to be used successfully by WCMRC to recover spilt DilBit.

About Aqua-Guard

Aqua-Guard provides a range of state-of-the-the-art oil spill response solutions including the URO Skimmer System and the RBS TRITON™ range of oil skimmers—all built on Aqua-Guard’s patented RBS TRITON™ technology to deliver some of the highest efficiency and recovery rates in the industry.