Scientists successfully test a sponge to clean up oil spills

Using the technique of sequential infiltration synthesis, these experts have found a way to develop an extremely thin layer to strongly bind molecules to capture oil. The experiment was conducted in California.

A new technology for cleaning up oil spills invented at the Argonne National Laboratory (USA) has proven its effectiveness in a real offshore experience. The trial, conducted on the California coast, aimed to validate Oleo Sponge in an environment imitating a real oil spill.

"This technology is important because, despite the industry's greatest precautions, oil spills Oil continues to occur, and existing cleaning methods are surprisingly inadequate," said the co-inventor Seth Darling, director of the Argonne Institute of Molecular Engineering.

He and a team of scientists started with the common polyurethane foam, the type used in furniture cushions. It had a large surface area to collect spilled oil and useful mechanical properties, but it needed a new surface chemistry to firmly join the molecules that absorb oil.

Darling and his Argonne chemist Jeff Elam developed a technique called Sequential Infiltration Synthesis, used to infuse metal oxides into polymeric materials, and finally found a way to adapt the technique to develop an extremely thin layer of metal oxide "primer" near the inner surfaces of the foam to strongly bind the molecules to capture the oil

The result is Oleo Sponge, which before this last test in water free, had already been reviewed in the laboratory and at Ohmsett, a large reservoir of seawater used by companies and government agencies to evaluate technologies. for the answer to the oil spill.

Argonne scientists Anil Mane, Joseph Libera and Edward Barry also contributed to the development of Oleo Sponge, helping Barry in the California experience. The cleaning method is simple: the sponge is immersed in water and then squeezed, the oil is collected in containers for possible reuse or safe disposal. After draining oil, Oleo Sponge can be reused

The researchers chose the Coal Oil Point filtration field in the Santa Barbara Channel near Goleta, California, for their experiment. The location remains one of the largest and most studied active marine filtration areas in the world. Located at depths of 20 to 80 meters, the filtrations have been active for at least 500,000 years and release about 40 tons of methane, 19 tons of other organic gases and more than 100 barrels of liquid oil per day. .

Argonne researchers They were particularly interested in whether the reusable Oleo Sponge could remove the shine, a layer of surface oil of about one micron from the surface. thickness that shines perpetually on the surface of the water. They made a series of sponges for this purpose, deploying them for use in a small fishing boat, such as those used to help emergency cleaning efforts after a spill. The sponge worked as the researchers had predicted: she managed to remove the oil glow from the surface of the water, leaving no visible trace.