SEATTLE — Oil spills have long impacted the environment and livelihoods of countries and marine systems that are near the “spill location.” The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, for one, is still affecting the Gulf of Mexico seven years later, and the damage done is most likely irreversible.
While it would be ideal to stop the oil spills from occurring in the first place, it is impossible to ensure this on such a large scale. Still, these uncontrolled spills occur far too often, especially considering the world’s lack of an adequate response to undo, or at least improve, the damage on the environment.
Well, that’s about to change. A new sponge, developed by Seth Darling at the Argonne National Laboratory, has the potential to change the way we clean oil spills, especially for developing countries that often cannot afford large-scale cleaning procedures for oil spills that occur off the country’s coasts. The material of the sponge can absorb up to 90 times its weight in oil before needing to be wrung out to improve reusability.
In fact, that’s in part what makes this sponge so revolutionary: its recyclability. Most commercial products are sorbents, which collect the molecules of a substance through sorption. Sorbents are a one-time only solution for soaking up oil and are incinerated afterward, making it necessary to develop and use many sorbents when trying to clean oil spills.
According to the Argonne National Laboratory, Seth Darling’s research focuses on nanomaterials, water treatment and infiltration synthesis, all of which contributed to developing the absorbent “Oleo” sponge.
The Argonne National Laboratory, when testing the Oleo sponge, found that the foam material could repeatedly clean oil spills — albeit smaller spills for testing purposes — with little change in capacity and could remove crude oil from water. After wringing out the sponge, they found that it was still capable of absorbing oil despite being tested beforehand.
This sponge has the potential to do wonders for countries that cannot afford to go through expensive cleaning procedures when oil spills occur off their coasts.
An oil spill in Nigeria has already damaged the livelihood of farmers and fishermen, as well as the environment. Al Jazeera reports that Nigeria’s drinking water was contaminated by oil and cancer-causing compounds due to an oil spill by Royal Dutch Shell in 2016.
Furthermore, the Niger Delta specifically has suffered oil damage “equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years,” according to the New York Times. The Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 was the worst oil spill in American history at that point in time, with 11 million gallons of oil spilling into the Prince William Sound.
Farmers and fishermen who rely on the Niger delta were forced to come to terms with ruptured income at the hands of Royal Dutch Shell. Despite a lawsuit to force the company to clean up the dangerous spill, a product like the Oleo sponge could help the country clean oil spills, improving the efficiency and quality of the job.
With more testing and manufacturing of the sponge, the results could be instrumental in how nations clean oil spills. For countries that cannot afford any problems with their cleanup process, the Oleo sponge is, quite literally, a lifesaver.
– Jacqueline Artz