B01_SYNPOSIS_1.docx

SYNPOSIS

This pre-solicitation notice is being issued in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.204. This procurement is anticipated in being conducted in accordance with FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation. The United States Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) intends to competitively award a contract for a requirement titled "Critical Energy Measurement". The Government anticipates awarding a firm fixed price type contract. There are no set aside restrictions anticipated. The BSEE Acquisition Operations Branch is the contracting office for this procurement and the resultant contract administrator. All potential Offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database at www.sam.2ov at the time of submission of an offer. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541690, Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE/SCOPE OF WORK

In Situ Burning (ISB) of crude oil can be an effective means of quickly remediating spilled crude oil on water. However, as crude oil weathers and emulsifies, ignition becomes more difficult due to the loss of flammable volatiles and heat absorption by water (Garo et al, 2004). For some crude oils not readily ignitable, the addition of heat energy can produce sufficient flammable vapors to ignite the slick. Accelerants, such as gelled gasoline or diesel, can be used to provide sufficient heat to ignite oil spills. Critical heat flux is the amount of heat energy required to produce sufficient volatile vapors to ignite a material, referred to as critical energy for this research effort. Understanding the critical energy required to initiate ISB for weathered and emulsified oil is necessary for spill responders to determine if ISB is possible.

Currently no data repository or model exists that can predict the critical energy required ignite specific materials (Rivera et al. 2023). This project aims to measure the critical energy of fresh, weathered, and/or emulsified crude oils to provide valuable decision-making information for oil spill responders. Understanding the ignitability of crude oil on water is necessary for identifying if ISB is a viable response strategy.

The overall purpose of this project is to identify the conditions under which ISB is a viable response option for on water oil spill response.

The objectives of this project will be as follows:

1. Measure the critical heat flux required to ignite fresh, weathered, and/or emulsified crude oil on water.

2. Prepare collection of critical heat flux data for use as a decision-making dataset.

3. Optional:

• Chemically analyze crude oil samples for the purpose of attempting to determine sample ignitability based on chemical composition.

• Perform larger burn pan measurements for purpose of understanding the variation of results due to scaling.

• Acquire crude oil samples in addition to samples provided by the government.

• Present results at a BSEE approved conference.

• Prepare a manuscript for submission to a BSEE approved publication.

UPCOMING SOLICITATION DETAILS

The solicitation number is 140E0125R0004 and the solicitation will be issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP) on SAM.gov estimated to be within the next 15 to 25 days. The official final RFP will not be posted to SAM.gov before this close of this pre-solicitation notice which is set to close on 6/13/2025.

If you have any questions, please contact Contracting Officer, Michelle Potter by June 13, 2025 @ 5PM EST. Reference Solicitation No. 140E0125R0004 on all correspondence to michelle.potter@bsee.gov.