Created a sponge that can clear the ocean from oil and oil products

Oil and refined products today are the main polluters of the oceans of our planet. Virtually all serious cases of pollution of the world's oceans are associated with oil. Even if serious accidents of tankers and oil platforms are thrown away, one should not forget that from 8 to 20 million barrels of oil are deliberately dumped into the waters every year simply as a result of washing the holds of sea oil carriers. And scientists for a long time puzzled themselves over how to effectively and inexpensively clean water from spilled oil products. Well, it looks like a pretty good solution has been found.

Oily oil stains, as a rule, are either burnt or trying to collect with the help of special sponges. So, Argonne National Laboratory specialists at the US Department of Energy developed a completely new generation of sponges, which is not only reusable, but also absorbs oil and its products not only from the surface of the water, but even under water. The development was called Oleo Sponge. After the sponge has absorbed the oil, it is squeezed out on special machines, after which it becomes suitable for work again.

The idea of ​​creating such material has been in the air for a long time, but only now scientists have managed to translate what they want into reality. At the base of the sponge is a regular polyurethane foam, which is perfectly absorbing liquids. The main problem was that this material did not distinguish between ordinary water and oily oil, absorbing both. That is why the researchers had to modify the polyurethane foam somewhat by applying a process called “synthesis of sequential infiltration”. Sponge began to give preference to oily liquids, absorbing them, leaving the water outside.

During hundreds of tests and tests, Oleo Sponge did a great job with all the tasks assigned to it to clean water bodies. At the same time, a new sponge absorbs not only oil and its products, but also diesel fuel and various oils of various origins. Scientists can adjust the material in such a way that it selectively begins to absorb any other liquids at will, so the new sponge has just the widest range of applications. I think that very soon we will see the use of the sponge in practice, but for the time being the team of researchers continues to improve their offspring and reflect on how this invention can be commercialized.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/sozdana-gubka-sposobnaya-ochistit-okean-ot-nefti-i-nefteproduktov.html.