A WORLD FIRST
LARS LUNDIN’S TECHNOLOGY TOOK OVER THE WORLD
76 YEAR OLD OIL SPILL PREVENTION AND REPONSE PIONEER LARS LUNDIN IN HIS HOME IN HANKO
OIL EXPERTISE MERITS
Lars Lundin gained his expertise and experience with transporting oil from his 10 years as an officer on an oil tanker.
He amassed his knowledge of different types of oil and their behaviour from working as a harbour master for 12 years at Neste Oy’s Sköldvik oil harbour.
A particular area of interest for Lars Lundin was the development of oil spill prevention and response equipment to suit winter conditions. Among other things, he obtained important information from his observations of the behaviour of oil and ice in relation to the collector during icy conditions over two winters in 1987 and 1988 in the Gulf of Finland.
THE BIRTH OF NEW PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TECHNOLOGY
During the 1960s, after Neste Oy had begun to refine and transport the refined oil to coastal Finnish towns, there was a great need to prevent the pollution of thousands of islands and coasts. At that time oil spill and prevention methods mostly comprised the prevention of oil spills rather than collection.
As oil transportation increased in the 1970s, oil spill collection equipment was developed worldwide. While employed by Neste Oy, Lars Lundin followed the development of oil spill prevention and response on behalf of his profession. In 1982, he came up with the idea to collect oil with a brush, which led him to design a brush method appropriate for the task.
His earlier maritime profession meant that his goal became the development of open-sea oil spill prevention and response, with further development in mind. His idea was an independent vessel in which the stiff-brush method could be used when collecting oil. Channels would be constructed for the vessel, through which water and oil would circulate as brushes installed in the channel collected the oil. The vessel type contained all of the necessary operational elements for open-sea oil spill prevention and response.