The number of marine oil spills, such as the Nakhodka accident in January 1997, still exceeds 300 incidents per year in Japan, including small-scale spills.

The number of marine oil spills, such as the Nakhodka accident in January 1997, still exceeds 300 incidents per year in Japan, including small-scale spills.
Furthermore, the number of oil pollution incidents in rivers is rapidly increasing, and in 1998, the number of incidents exceeded the number of marine oil pollution incidents, totaling more than 600 per year.
While adsorbent mats, neutralizers, and emulsion dispersants are the mainstream materials used to collect contaminated oil, powdered oil gel agents have been attracting attention in recent years for their speed of collection and ease of use.
Alpha Japan Co., Ltd. developed the world's first powdered oil gelator in 1991.
Although a latecomer to the field of contaminated oil recovery materials, Alpha Japan has been successful in developing applications not only in oceans and rivers, but also in factories and soil.
Powdered oil gelling agent is very easy to use.
Simply spray the powdered oil gelling agent at the site of a spill of fuel oil, machine oil, waste oil, solvents, etc. Depending on the target substance, the gelator can be applied in 10 minutes or less.
Depending on the target material, it will begin to solidify in about 10 minutes.
Generally, 0.2 to 0.3 of this agent is used per 1% of the weight of the target oil.
Currently, "ALPHA GEL 1000" for fuel oils such as solvent, gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, and heavy oil, and "ALPHA GEL 1650" for lubricating oils such as lubricating oil and vegetable oil are available, priced at approximately 30,000 yen per 10 kg.
The basic technology of the powdered oil gelling agent is a gelling agent technology patented by Shell, a major oil company.
However, it was never commercialized and the patent expired in the mid-1960s.
I heard this information from an acquaintance and was able to commercialize the technology on my own.
Until then, I had been running a business consulting business, but the Gulf War broke out in 1990, and images of oil-soaked water were being widely broadcast.
Development of equipment to take advantage of the characteristics of the product.
At the time of development, the powdered oil gelling agent was the first product of its kind in the world and was not well known, so there were almost no inquiries.
In addition, the "Law Concerning Prevention of Marine Pollution and Maritime Disasters" strictly regulates the specifications of recovery materials used for oil recovery in the ocean, and it is mandatory to obtain type certification from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Until then, only three types of materials had been approved as oil discharge prevention materials: adsorbent mats, oil treatment agents (neutralizers and emulsifying dispersants), and liquid oil gelling agents.
In 1993, Alpha Japan applied to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (then the Ministry of Transport) for type certification, which was granted in accordance with a partial revision of the law that came into effect in November 1995.
Meanwhile, Alpha Japan also developed a spreader to facilitate on-site spreading of the gelling agent.
Alpha Japan offers a variety of sprayers to meet the needs of each site, including the Alpha Jet ME-1, an ejector-type sprayer that inhales the gelling agent directly from the container and applies it.
As a specialist in oil pollution control, "Initially, we considered oil pollution caused by marine accidents as a target for our powdered oil gelling agent.
However, accidents do not occur that frequently.
Of course, we should be happy that accidents do not occur, but as a business, we miscalculated a bit," said Nakata.
Under the Marine Pollution Prevention Law, tankers over a certain gross tonnage are required to be equipped with oil fences, oil treatment agents, and other oil discharge prevention materials when they are carrying crude oil or heavy oil as cargo and are navigating in ports or other sea areas designated by an ordinance of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
In addition, the Maritime Disaster Prevention Center, a licensed corporation, has 33 bases throughout Japan equipped with oil discharge prevention materials and supplies materials and equipment to tankers and other vessels.
Alpha Gel is also used at these locations, but unless there is an accident, only about 3% of the stock is replaced annually.
However, there are unexpectedly many inquiries for Alphagel for use in rivers, soil, oil spills at factories, removal of various types of oil from floors and corridors, and waste oil treatment.
In fact, as a market, it is even larger than the marine market." The number of reported oil spills into rivers alone is more than twice that of marine accidents.
However, although the Water Pollution Control Law and the River Law require reporting, compared to marine accidents, the current situation is that there is no firmly established contact system or know-how on how to respond to such incidents.
In addition, the recent increase in corporate awareness of environmental risks has accelerated the need to deal with oil leaks from tanks and other facilities and subsequent oil seepage from underground, which had been postponed until now.
Under these circumstances, we are not only selling Alpha Gel, but also providing on-site guidance and coordination consulting services.
When there is an oil spill into a river, a task force of about 50 people from the national, prefectural, and municipal governments, public health departments, fire departments, and police stations is set up to deal with the situation.
However, the command is not centralized in the same way that the Japan Coast Guard responds to marine accidents, nor has it accumulated the know-how to deal with such incidents.
Even for oil treatment at factories, it is not a problem that can be solved with just materials, but requires the knowledge of experts, such as surveys and the formulation of recovery plans based on the surveys," says Nakata, explaining the need for ESI maps in rivers.
This is something that has been increasingly developed in the world of marine oil control activities in recent years, and includes a variety of information such as the economy, society, ecosystem, and culture of the coastal areas along the shoreline, as well as the degree of difficulty of control depending on the configuration of the shoreline.
However, there are still few examples of its creation in rivers.
Therefore, the Kanto Oil Pollution Control Study Group, established in 2003 and led by businesses that handle materials and equipment for the control of oil and other pollutants, including Alpha Japan, has created a sample version of a river ESI map and is currently conducting research.
Mr. Nakata believes that the use of oil treatment agents will further expand in the future in the ocean, rivers, soil, and factories.
This is because he predicts that stricter laws and regulations and increased environmental awareness among residents in the surrounding areas will lead to more accidental incidents and companies taking measures that would not have been reported in the past.