Hoverspill: a new amphibious vehicle for responding in difficult-to-access sites

Oil spill experience often shows that response activities are hampered due to the absence of operative autonomous support capable of reaching particular sites or operate in safe and efficient conditions in areas such as saltmarshes, mudflats, river banks, cliff bottoms… This is the purpose of the so-called FP7 Hoverspill project (www.hoverspill.eu), a 3-year European project that recently reached completion: to design and build a small-size amphibious vehicle designed to ensure rapid oil spill response. The result is an air-cushion vehicle (ACV), known as Hoverspill, based on the innovative MACP (Multipurpose Air Cushion Platform) developed by Hovertech and SOA. It is a completely amphibious vehicle capable of working on land and on water, usable as a pontoon in floating conditions. Its compactness makes it easy to transport by road. The project also included the design and building of a highly effective integrated O/W Turbylec separator developed by YLEC. Spill response equipment will be loaded on-board based on a modular concept enabling the vehicle to carry out specific tasks with just the required equipment