Laser cleaning of Prestige tanker oil spill on coastal rocks controlled by spectrochemical analysis Original Research Article

The potential of laser technology for controlled clean-up and analysis of Prestige tanker oil spill from coastal rocks is examined. Some of the massive cleaning methods cause more damage on the environment than they want to prevent. Laser treatment offers advantages with respect to these techniques such as the absence of additional residues and a minimal damage to the underlying substrate material. For these reasons, laser cleaning is presented as an alternative or complementary method in spills response available for minimizing their impact on the environment and human health. Test results of the yield of the laser cleaning process performed by a Nd:YAG laser emitting at two wavelengths are presented for various types of rocks polluted by the spill found on the north Galician coast. The laser cleaning process is controlled by the spectral analysis of the emission from the laser-produced plasma in order to avoid damage to the original rock surface. In order to provide complementary data, a morphological and compositional comparison of polluted and cleaned pieces has been performed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.