BLOW OUT, 2011-2013

The BLOW OUT project is set apart by its focus on a more safety-related issue than environmental issue, by investigating incidents relating to underwater natural gas leaks, in the deep sea environment, or inshore subsea LNG discharge.

The exploitation of fossil fuels at sea involves proven industrial risks for both personnel and equipment in the event of a leak, leading to a loss of buoyancy for offshore facilities caused by the upwelling of gas and the presence of a hazardous cloud (toxicity, risk of explosion) at the sea surface.

The first aim of this research project is to develop a physical gas release model, including LNG, capable of estimating the characteristics of the marine natural gas plume in the water column and its impact at the sea surface (diameter of the slick bubbling at sea surface, density/buoyancy at the surface, flow rate, etc.).

The second aim of the project involves conducting pilot-scale trials to test the observations made on a smaller scale in the TOTAL laboratories and to provide input for scientific research and debates on the mathematical equations describing these phenomena.

More information

Presentation of the work conducted through the research projects BLOW OUT and METANE (in French), Valérie Parthenay, société ALYOTECH.
Cedre Technical Day, 14 November 2013

VAN GANSE S., LE FLOCH S. 2014. Le projet Blow out.
Bulletin d'information du Cedre, n° 31, pp. 4-9