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posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the Housewares dept.

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling pipe blew out seven years ago, beginning the worst oil spill in U.S. history, those in charge of the recovery discovered a new wrinkle: the millions of gallons of oil bubbling from the sea floor weren't all collecting on the surface where it could be skimmed or burned. Some of it was forming a plume and drifting through the ocean under the surface.

Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have invented a new foam, called Oleo Sponge, that addresses this problem. The material not only easily adsorbs oil from water, but is also reusable and can pull dispersed oil from the entire water column—not just the surface.

"The Oleo Sponge offers a set of possibilities that, as far as we know, are unprecedented," said co-inventor Seth Darling, a scientist with Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials and a fellow of the University of Chicago's Institute for Molecular Engineering.

Argonne invents reusable sponge that soaks up oil, could revolutionize oil spill and diesel cleanup

About Argonne


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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:45AM (1 child)

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:45AM (#476330) Journal

    Some of it was forming a plume and drifting through the ocean under the surface.

    That is partly because a dispersant called Corexit, which helps oil mix with water, was used:

    In addition to spraying the dispersant onto the surface slick, it was used in an untested, off-label manner when BP injected it at the broken well-head, roughly 5,000 feet below the surface.

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_dispersants [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:47AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:47AM (#476331) Journal

    Correction, the quote was from this page:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corexit [wikipedia.org]

    Seems I should look into a corrective product.