Apparatus and method of removing debris floating on a body of water

Abstract

A skimmer for removal of liquid and debris, such as skimming oil spills from water, comprising three pontoons, one located in each of the corners of a triangle made up of interconnecting structural members floating on a body of water. The corner pontoons are adjustably buoyant permitting the skimmer to move vertically up or down as a unit in the water so as to adapt to the wave height of the body of water. At the base of the triangle is the skimmer mouth sloping upward towards a sump. The two pontoons on each side of the sloped mouth have a clamp easily attachable to an oil boom which guides an oil slick into the skimmer. The function of the mouth is to skim off approximately two inches of the water surface. The sloped mouth terminates at an impregnable deflector centrally located between two screens that serve as a wave quieting assembly as well as a separator of debris floating on the water. The skimmed water is then directed through the debris screens into a quieting area. Once in this quieting area, the oil slick flows over a self-adjustable weir into a sump. The weir is made adjustable by a float that modifies the weir elevation with changes of liquid level in the sump. The skimmed liquid is then pumped to a storage tank from which it is recycled by letting the water at the tank bottom flow under gravity back into the oil boom.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.