Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Toronto have designed a sponge that can remove hard-to-recover oil from Artic waters. Their research builds on previously developed sponge technology to target specific challenges with recovering oil from ultra-cold water.
The findings, published in Science Advances, present an economical and sustainable method of oil recovery which will benefit the environment whilst presenting a cost-effective solution to industry.
Researchers have developed a special coating for commercially available sponges which can recover oil droplets from water as cold as 5 degrees celsius. Oil is more difficult to remove from ultra-cold water because it becomes viscous at low temperatures, reducing its flow and making it harder to collect.
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