  The use of in-situ burning (ISB) as a clean-up response in the event of an
oil spill has generated controversy because of unburned hydrocarbons and
products of incomplete combustion left behind on an ISB site. These substances
threaten marine life, both in the ocean and on the ocean floor. Treating crude
oil as a multicomponent liquid fuel, this manuscript investigates the effect of
carbon-based nanomaterials, acetylene black (AB) and multi-walled carbon
nanotube (MWNT), on the combustion and flame characteristics of crude sourced
from the Bakken formation (ND, USA). Sub-millimeter droplets of colloidal
suspensions of Bakken crude and nanomaterials at various particle loadings were
burned, and the process was captured with CMOS and CCD cameras. The resulting
images were post-processed to generate burning rate, ignition delay, total
combustion time, and flame stand-off (FSR) ratio data for the various crude
suspensions. A maximum combustion rate enhancement of 39.5% and 31.1% was
observed at a particle loading of 0.5% w/w acetylene black nanoparticles and
0.5% w/w multi-walled carbon nanotubes, respectively. Generally, FSR for pure
Bakken was noted as larger than for Bakken with nanoparticle additives. These
results are expected to spur further investigations into the use of
nanomaterials for ISB crude oil clean-ups.
