MIT Develops "Paper Towel" For Oil Spills

TheUnknownCoder writes "MIT scientists have created a Nanowire mesh that can selectively absorb hydrophobic (oil-like) liquids from water up to 20 times its weight. The membrane can be recycled many times for future use, and the oil itself can also be recovered. There's even a video of it in action, removing gasoline from water."

hydrophobic liquids

[overcaffein8d]

that is a great idea... but it's only nonpolar things it can absorb. if it's e85 they're transporting, only 15% will be recovered, and that will all be gasoline (the rest'll just get the fishies drunk)

but if it did pick up polar compounds, it would also pick up water

p.s. never eat sodium polyacrylate.

Re:Practical Application

[maxume]

Unless you are constantly and effectively avoiding gas that contains ethanol as an oxidizer, you probably have some problem other than persistent water (so water could be constantly leaking in...). The ethanol will pull the water into the fuel mix and carry it through the engine just fine, so the water should burn off in a tank or two, it shouldn't persist if you are using gas with ethanol in it, and you probably are.

"Dry gas" products are often just ethanol or methanol.

Re:Get real

[ColdWetDog]

Besides we can (and do) already DO this. We've had these hydrophilic absorbent pads for years. Have one in the bilge of my boat right now. They work great (even when wet which is supposedly one of the advantages of this new thing).

In fact, the US Coast Guard gets pretty annoyed if you don't have some method of cleaning up spills. From TFA, this stuff is supposed to work "better" - tastes great, less filling, picks up more stuff, won't absorb water. Likely it will cost lots more (bad idea, the stuff we have is reasonably expensive). The reusable but is interesting - I'm not sure how you would get the hydrocarbon out of the fabric without creating more of a mess or environmental issue than you already have. If you CAN do this, you have one leg up on the big boy versions of these products that are used to contain actual oil spills. These get recycled in the dump. AFAIK, it's always been possible to recycle the oil from the commercial booms, just not easy, environmentally friendly (think of the detergent that the spill containment people dump out to break up the heavier oil products) nor economically feasible.

We'll see, if it ever gets out of the lab.

Human hair is awesome too...

[MacDork]

Human hair [alaska.edu] does a great job of adsorbing oil, is renewable, and reusable. It can also be burned as fuel when you're done with it. 200,000 pounds of it goes into landfills every day. You could have enough to adsorb the entirety of Exxon Valdez by collecting what is produced in this country in a week.... and it would be essentially free.

You kids and your fancy nanowire meshes... ;-)

Re:Practical Application

[Aczlan]

Well, when it starts acting up it only takes a gallon or so of clean gas to get it running again.

I might be inclined to suspect a leaking fuel pickup... which would suck in air if the hole is above the level of the gas... Just m $.02

Re:clever

[g-to-the-o-to-the-g]

This is not the first time someone has done this. I work in the oil & gas industry, and there are a number of different products for cleaning up oil. At work we use pig mats [newpig.com], which won't absorb water (if you buy that type). They work as well as anyone could hope for.

Re:Best part about this?

[The -e**(i*pi)]

The company my das works for used to sell a chemical that emulsifies gas so if like a tanker ruptures on the road u spray this stuff on it and immediately you could use a blowtorch on it all day and have 0 chance of lighting it.

Re:finally :)

[TubeSteak]

When we completely run out of oil we will have found the perfect solution to clean up the environment...

Also, by that time the ability to recover the last bits of oil from the oceans from spills in the past will be fought over with tremendous military might, even if it's done from rowing boats.

There's actually a lot of oil sitting on the sea floor, because it doesn't float forever.

That seafloor oil is one of the main reasons that drilling off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Mexico is not allowed. Whenever there is a spill (and there always is, platform drilling is dirty), oil sinks and mixes in with mud on the seabed. Whenever a big storm rolls in, some of that oil gets churned up and washes ashore.

If you've ever been on a beach with oil on it, it isn't pretty.
You need a stiff brush to get the hydrocarbons off your feet.

Here's the most recent example I can recall:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiyeh_power_station_oil_spill [wikipedia.org]
That oil is going to be washing up on beaches & shorelines for decades.

Re:Get real

[Ian Alexander]

Besides we can (and do) already DO this. We've had these hydrophilic absorbent pads for years. Have one in the bilge of my boat right now. They work great (even when wet which is supposedly one of the advantages of this new thing).

In fact, the US Coast Guard gets pretty annoyed if you don't have some method of cleaning up spills. From TFA, this stuff is supposed to work "better" - tastes great, less filling, picks up more stuff, won't absorb water. Likely it will cost lots more (bad idea, the stuff we have is reasonably expensive). The reusable but is interesting - I'm not sure how you would get the hydrocarbon out of the fabric without creating more of a mess or environmental issue than you already have. If you CAN do this, you have one leg up on the big boy versions of these products that are used to contain actual oil spills. These get recycled in the dump. AFAIK, it's always been possible to recycle the oil from the commercial booms, just not easy, environmentally friendly (think of the detergent that the spill containment people dump out to break up the heavier oil products) nor economically feasible.

We'll see, if it ever gets out of the lab.

According to the article, all one has to do to recover the oil is to heat the pad beyond the boiling point of oil. The pad remains intact but the oil evaporates.

Re:Get real

[ColdWetDog]

Good point, missed that. But that means you have to heat the pad to between 175 and 300 [sapiensman.com] Degrees C. That's a fair amount of energy there.