The water around Vancouver Island has this week. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the latest spill likely isn鈥檛 recoverable.
Authorities in Taiwan are rushing to clean up a spill near Green Island in the Pacific. They鈥檒l likely skim the oil off the surface or use booms to contain the slick.
U.S.-based researchers have another method, however. Scientists at the University of Chicago's have developed foam they call the 鈥�.鈥� It can soak up about 90 times its own weight in oil before being wrung out and used again.
A senior chemist at Argonne, Jeff Elam, says the reusability of their foam isn鈥檛 its only breakthrough.
鈥淥leo Sponge can clean up subsurface oil, that is to say oil in the form of tiny droplets that remain suspended below the surface,鈥� Elam said. 鈥淎s far as we know, there is no other product that can do this.鈥�
Elam said cleaning up subsurface oil was a specific request from the U.S. Coast Guard, which is funding the project.
When failed in 2010, hundreds of millions of litres of oil spilled into the water and a lot of it didn鈥檛 collect on the surface.
In a report following the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the subsurface oil affected marine life in a huge swath of the Gulf of Mexico.
鈥淚n the past, subsurface oil has been largely ignored,鈥� Elam said. 鈥淏ut the environmental effects can be devastating.鈥�
Elam said Argonne鈥檚 technology is ready for licensing and the team is researching other uses for the sponge鈥檚 selective coating.
Argonne National Laboratory is part of the University of Chicago, conducting research for the U.S. Department of Energy.
