5/16/2012 Science 9

Can we Finally Clean up Oil Spills EFFECTIVELY?

By: ND
Humans have been relying on oil for thousands of years as a crucial energy source that powers our transportation and our modern lifestyle. With the growing need for oil as an important resource for our society also comes the issue of controlling the production of oil and its transportation. Oil is transported day and night by thousands of oil tankers across the ocean. This can be tremendously dangerous because it increases the risk of an oil spill. Oil spills occur when oil is released into the ocean due to human activity. Oil spills can happen anywhere at any time and is a global issue. They can be extremely detrimental to the ecosystems within the ocean and the earths marine life and can spread very quickly. Due to the chemical properties of both water and oil its very difficult to clean up oil spills. Some of them, like the spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez of Alaska in 1989, can take over 30 years to recover. In the same spill, over 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 sea otters and 300 seals died. These statistics only further prove how detrimental oil spills are to the marine environment. Sea bird covered in Oil. For years, what people have been struggling with the most regarding the issue of oil spills is the clean-up operation. As a result of the unequal sharing of electrons between hydrogen and oxygen atoms within a water molecule, there is a slight positive charge on the hydrogen atoms, and slight negative charge on the oxygen atoms. This makes water a polar molecule. Oil on the other hand, has equal sharing of electrons within its chains of hydrocarbon, making it a nonpolar molecule. With Oil being non-polar and water being polar, evidently the two do not mix, making the clean-up operation for oil spills very difficult.

Oil causes birds feathers to become matted so that they no longer keep out of the water or the cold and they lose their buoyancy and drown. Some birds try to clean their feather but only get poisoned when they swallow the oil.

The length of an oil spill clean-up process can span over a decade, depending on the amount and size of the spill. Traditional cleaning methods include booms and skimmers, chemical dispersants, and chemical herders. Booms are floating barricades, usually filled with air or Styrofoam used to contain oil on the surface of the water. Then the skimmers scrape, suck and brush oil from the surface without taking up much seawater. Chemical dispersants are liquid solvent that can be sprayed onto ocean slicks from airplanes; it mixes with the oil and breaks it down into smaller particles that then disperse with natural water currents. It is obvious that cleaning up an oil spill: requires a lot of time and technology, is difficult to control, and can be a serious problem of great magnitude if not dealt with immediately. Oil spills are too serious of an issue to be taken lightly, and frankly the technology used during the clean-up operations isnt as effective as it needs to be. However, researchers at Rice University and Penn State University may have finally solved the problem. Nanosponge Imagine a sponge-like substance that stays dry when immersed in a body of water, yet immediately absorbs oil when added to the water. Imagine that this substance can absorb 100 times its weight in oil. Imagine that the oil that this sponge absorbs could be reused. What if I told you that this sponge-like substance was real? According to ScienceDaily.com, [ Researchers] have discovered that adding a dash of boron to carbon while creating nanotubes turns them into solid, spongy, reusable blocks that have an astounding ability to absorb oil spilled in water. This amazing chemical breakthrough is known as Nanosponges. Nanosponges are the ideal tools to clean up oil spills. Nanosponges are elastic, compressible, flexible, and lightweight due to their permeable carbon- based material. As mentioned before it can absorb 100 times its weight and is hydrophobic (hates water) and oleophillic (loves oil). Nansponges can also be easily controlled by a magnet that leads it to whatever direction the magnet is. Unmistakably, Nanosponges are perfect for oil spills, its many qualities and characteristics solving every tribulation faced when cleaning up oil. Also, Nansponges can be reused, and so can the oil that they absorb. Just burn off the oil and you can reuse the same Nanosponge to soak up more. So how does this astounding substance work? Researchers at Rice University and Penn State University have developed the Nanosponges using the elements boron and carbon. The carbon nanotubes that usually grow during Chemical Vapor deposition usually stand up straight without any bonding between them and their neighbors. But when they added boron-introduced defects it allowed the nanotubes to bond at the atomic level, creating its distinctive porous properties. Ajayan, Rice's Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and chemistry says that, this is the first time the covalent junctions between nanotubes in such solids have been convincingly demonstrated.

There is no doubt that Nanosponges are a developing success and will help to clean Oil spills quicker and more effective than ever before, as it is obviously efficient and unlike any other oil-cleaning method; Although, there is a potential barrier against its success. Like many great scientific breakthroughs, Nanosponges may struggle with financing. Without the funds to develop or mass produce the Nanosponges it may not be able to develop. Nansponges have an economic factor, the stakeholders being the company responsible for the spill. Obviously, the company will be the ones expected to finance the cleanup operation and ensuring that the spill doesnt spread widely. Previously, clean-up operations had many applications and uses of different technology, with one set effective method it will be quicker, cheaper, and easier to control. The other factor is a political factor, the stakeholders now being the Government. If the company responsible for the spill is based in their country, they should have to take responsibility for containing the spill quickly before it spreads across the sea and affects the coasts of other countries. Nanosponges will probably be less stressful and frantic then previous methods and easier to control. Investing in Nanosponges would be an efficient way to control the spread. In conclusion, a possible, almost perfect, solution to oil spills tremendously effective and controllable has been developed. Its simple to use and demonstrate, easy to control, lightweight, reusable, oleophillic and hydrophobic, with not many downsides apart from the necessity of financing. I feel Nanosponges will have an astounding positive impact on the problem and is the future of cleaning oil spills. Daniel Hashim, a graduate student in the Rice lab of materials scientist with Nanosponge.

Citations:
Web Sources: Lott, Melissa C. "Nanosponge Can Absorb 100 times Its Weight in Oil." Blogs.scientifcamerican.com. Scientific American, 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/pluggedin/2012/04/16/nanosponge-can-absorb-100-times-its-weight-in-oil/> Rice University. "Sponging up oil spills: Nanosponges soak up oil again and again." ScienceDaily, 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416130400.html> "Effects of OIl Spills." ITOPF.com. The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.itopf.com/marinespills/effects/> Book Source(s): Eyewitness Books. OIL. New York: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2007. Print. Image Sources: Researcher Shows Nanosponge via Screenshot. Digital image. Rawstory.com. Raw Story, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/17/researchers-createnanosponges-to-suck-up-oil-spilled-in-water/>. Nanosponge. Digital image. Gizmag.com. Gizmag, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.gizmag.com/oil-absorbing-nanosponge/22180/> Bird covered in oil. Digital image. Oceana.org. Oceana, 6 May 2010. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://oceana.org/en/blog/2010/05/10-ways-the-oil-spillcould-affect-marine-life>