The Vortex Principle: A Method for Concentrating Materials from a Liquid Phase.

A material less dense than water can be concentrated in a central pocket to form a vortex if the material is immiscible and unreactive with water. The process of forming such a central pocket is generally called vortexing. The vortexing technique was used in laboratory-scale experiments involving several liquids and solids in water to determine if this technique can be extended to concentrating oil spills in larger bodies of water, such as oceans, seas, and lakes. Simulation of complete open-water testing was hampered by the presence of a wall effect in the containers used for the laboratory experiments and by the absence of several critical meteorological and open-sea parameters. Author