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The challenge

Cleaning up after oil spills

Oil spills can occur in oceans, rivers, bays, and other water bodies. They're often caused by accidents involving tankers, barges, pipelines, refineries, drilling rigs, storage facilities and recreational boats.

Oil spills can cause significant environmental damage, especially to marine wildlife.

Even after an oil spill is cleaned up, crude oil remains in the sea water as small droplets. And even at these low oil concentrations, the water is still environmentally unsafe. The water has to be treated on shore, but this is costly and can take a long time.

There is a need for new approaches to cleaning up spilled oil. We need to need to quickly separate and remove the oil from the seawater, including oil at very low concentrations. The Government of Canada funded CSIRO scientists to create new oil spill response technology.

csiro_scientists_create_new_oil_spill_response_technology (540p)

[Animation image appears of a boat in the ocean with an oil slick beneath it and a pelican standing in a pool of oil on the ocean shore]

Narrator: Oil spills can cause great environmental damage, especially to our marine wildlife.

[Animation image changes to show an oil spill spreading out over the ocean from the boat, and the camera pans to the edge of the oil slick, and text appears: Thick oil, Thin oil, Small droplets dispersed in sea water]

When oil spills do happen we need to quickly separate and remove the oil from the sea water. Oil spill cleanup is a multi-step process.

[Animation image changes to show three researchers working in a lab]

CSIRO has developed a technology for separating oil from water after the skimming operation.

[Animation image changes to show a close view of a hand holding a sponge with tongs, and dipping it into a beaker of polystyrene-based polymer, and text appears pointing to the beaker: Polystyrene-based polymer]

First we take a typical domestic sponge, we coat the sponge with a special polystyrene-based polymer.

[Animation image shows the sponge being removed from the beaker, and a diagram showing the layers of the sponge appears with text: Hydrophobic polymer layer, Sponge]

The polymer layer coating the sponge is super hydrophobic.

[Animation image changes to show a hand holding a beaker with oil droplets and water, and pouring it over the sponge and text appears: Small oil droplets mixed in water]

That means it’s extremely repellent of water but it’s very efficient at separating oil from water.

[Animation image changes to show the sponge on a compressor, and then the image shows the sponge being compressed down and the oil squeezing out of the sponge]

That oil soaks into the sponge. The sponge material is cheap and scalable. It can also be easily recycled and reused after it has been mechanically compressed.

[Animation image changes to show a close view of oil droplets in the water, and then the camera pans up to show a boat above the oil droplets in the water, and text appears: Oil spill response vessel]

Best of all our technology also works with extremely low concentrations of oil. We want to remove the remaining oil droplets so that the oil spill response vessel can continue to collect oil for longer.

[Animation image changes to show a flow diagram showing the stages of the oil spill cleaning process, and text appears: Pump, Oil/water mixture tank, Hydrophobic sponge, Clean sea water]

Returning to shore is costly and time consuming. Our new technology allows oil spills to be cleaned at sea.

[Animation image changes to show the boat floating on a clean sea, and then the camera pans up and fish and marine life can be seen below the boat in the ocean]

This is a cheaper, faster way to treat oil spills, ultimately helping reduce the impact on our marine life.

[Music plays and the image changes to show the Fisheries and Oceans Canada logo and text on a white screen: Acknowledgement to Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Multi-Partner Research Initiative under Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan]

[Image changes to show the CSIRO logo and text appears: CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency]

Oil spills can cause significant environmental damage. We have developed new oil spill response technology that focuses on removing small oil droplets.

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Our response

New oil spill response technology

CSIRO has developed new oil spill response technology that focuses on removing these droplets.

First, we take a typical domestic sponge.

We coat the sponge with a special polystyrene-based polymer.

The polymer layer coating the sponge is 'superhydrophobic'. That means it’s extremely repellent of water. But it's very efficient at separating oil from water emulsions: the oil soaks into the sponge and the water wicks away.

The sponge material is cheap and scalable. It can also be easily recycled and reused after it’s been mechanically compressed.

Best of all, our technology can be used after the bulk of the oil is removed (the 'skimming operation'). This is when there the oil is at extremely low – but still environmentally harmful – concentration in the water. The hydrophobic sponges can separate oil from water even with extremely low concentrations: lower than 1000 ppm.

The results

Larger scale trials on the horizon

Our new technology allows oil spills to be cleaned at sea. This is a cheaper, faster way to treat oil spills, ultimately helping reduce the impact on our marine life.

The team is now scaling the synthesis of the materials and carrying out larger scale trials with the ultimate goal of large scale deployment.

  • Scientists from the CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency – have developed new technology that starts with the humble domestic sponge.
  • The sponge is coated with a special ‘superhydrophobic’ polymer, which makes it extremely efficient at separating oil from water emulsions. Best of all, they can be used after the bulk of the oil is removed (the ‘skimming operation’), when the oil is at extremely low – though still environmentally harmful – concentrations.
  • The sponges are cheap and scalable, and can be easily recycled and reused. The team is now scaling the synthesis of the materials and carrying out larger scale trials with the ultimate goal of large scale deployment.
The process behind CSIRO's new oil spill response technology. From coating a domestic sponge with 'superhydrogphobic' polymer, to using to separate oil, and then mechanically compressing the sponge to get rid of the oil and use it again.

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