You may remember that on 24th March 1989, the oil tanker EXXON VALDEZ ran aground in Prince William Sound, south of Anchorage, Alaska, releasing 40,000 tonnes of crude oil along 1,100 km of coastline.
After trying out countless products and techniques, EXXON and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) decided to test CECA's INIPOL® EAP 22, developed by Groupement de Recherche de Lacq (Lacq Research Complex).
One of the specifics of this product was its perfect compatibility with the marine environment, both fauna and flora. It worked by speeding up the hydrocarbon breakdown process under the effect of certain bacteria present in the water, acting like a " powerful promoter of natural decontamination means ". One tonne of Inipol® was needed to clean up one kilometer of coastline. And time was of the essence...
Struck by the extent of the disaster, CECA, a subsidiary of the ARKEMA Group, took every step possible to manufacture at its Feuchy factory 500 tonnes of product to be delivered within a few weeks. Everything was ready on schedule.
20 years on, marine dispersants still feature among CECA's product range under the trademark Inipol®, with ever more effective new generation products being developed.
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