DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Mitigating oil spills in the water column

Abstract

The scale and scope of uncontrolled oil spills can be devastating. Diverse marine environments and fragile ecologies are some of the most susceptible to the many ill effects, while the economic costs can be crippling. A notoriously difficult challenge with no known technological solution is the successful removal of oil dispersed in the water column. Here, we address this problem through cheap and reusable oil sorbents based on the chemical modification of polymer foams. Interfacial chemistry was optimized and subsequently tested in a simulated marine environment at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility, Ohmsett. We find favorable performance for surface oil mitigation and, for the first time, demonstrate the advanced sorbent's efficiency and efficacy at pilot scale in extraction of crude oil and refined petroleum products dispersed in the water column. As a result, this is a potentially disruptive technology, opening a new field of environmental science focused on sub-surface pollutant sequestration.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  2. National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (Ohmsett), Leonardo, NJ (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1402048
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2017; Journal ID: ISSN 2053-1400
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Barry, Edward, Libera, Joseph A., Mane, Anil U., Avila, Jason R., DeVitis, David, Van Dyke, Keith, Elam, Jeffrey W., and Darling, Seth B. Mitigating oil spills in the water column. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1039/C7EW00265C.
Barry, Edward, Libera, Joseph A., Mane, Anil U., Avila, Jason R., DeVitis, David, Van Dyke, Keith, Elam, Jeffrey W., & Darling, Seth B. Mitigating oil spills in the water column. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EW00265C
Barry, Edward, Libera, Joseph A., Mane, Anil U., Avila, Jason R., DeVitis, David, Van Dyke, Keith, Elam, Jeffrey W., and Darling, Seth B. Thu . "Mitigating oil spills in the water column". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EW00265C. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1402048.
@article{osti_1402048,
title = {Mitigating oil spills in the water column},
author = {Barry, Edward and Libera, Joseph A. and Mane, Anil U. and Avila, Jason R. and DeVitis, David and Van Dyke, Keith and Elam, Jeffrey W. and Darling, Seth B.},
abstractNote = {The scale and scope of uncontrolled oil spills can be devastating. Diverse marine environments and fragile ecologies are some of the most susceptible to the many ill effects, while the economic costs can be crippling. A notoriously difficult challenge with no known technological solution is the successful removal of oil dispersed in the water column. Here, we address this problem through cheap and reusable oil sorbents based on the chemical modification of polymer foams. Interfacial chemistry was optimized and subsequently tested in a simulated marine environment at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility, Ohmsett. We find favorable performance for surface oil mitigation and, for the first time, demonstrate the advanced sorbent's efficiency and efficacy at pilot scale in extraction of crude oil and refined petroleum products dispersed in the water column. As a result, this is a potentially disruptive technology, opening a new field of environmental science focused on sub-surface pollutant sequestration.},
doi = {10.1039/C7EW00265C},
journal = {Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology},
number = ,
volume = 2017,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Thu Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 36 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Carbon Fiber Aerogel Made from Raw Cotton: A Novel, Efficient and Recyclable Sorbent for Oils and Organic Solvents
journal, August 2013


Graphene sponge for efficient and repeatable adsorption and desorption of water contaminations
journal, January 2012

  • Zhao, Jinping; Ren, Wencai; Cheng, Hui-Ming
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry, Vol. 22, Issue 38
  • DOI: 10.1039/c2jm34128j

Investigation of the effectiveness of absorbent materials in oil spills clean up
journal, November 2001


Superwetting nanowire membranes for selective absorption
journal, May 2008

  • Yuan, Jikang; Liu, Xiaogang; Akbulut, Ozge
  • Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 3, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2008.136

A Route to Nanoscopic Materials via Sequential Infiltration Synthesis on Block Copolymer Templates
journal, May 2011

  • Peng, Qing; Tseng, Yu-Chih; Darling, Seth B.
  • ACS Nano, Vol. 5, Issue 6, p. 4600-4606
  • DOI: 10.1021/nn2003234

Highly-efficient and recyclable oil absorbing performance of functionalized graphene aerogel
journal, June 2015


Porous boron nitride nanosheets for effective water cleaning
journal, April 2013

  • Lei, Weiwei; Portehault, David; Liu, Dan
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Article No. 1777
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2818

Composition and fate of gas and oil released to the water column during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
journal, July 2011

  • Reddy, C. M.; Arey, J. S.; Seewald, J. S.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 109, Issue 50
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1101242108

Enhanced Block Copolymer Lithography Using Sequential Infiltration Synthesis
journal, July 2011

  • Tseng, Yu-Chih; Peng, Qing; Ocola, Leonidas E.
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 115, Issue 36, p. 17725-17729
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp205532e

Robust Hydrocarbon Degradation and Dynamics of Bacterial Communities during Nutrient-Enhanced Oil Spill Bioremediation
journal, November 2002


Carbon Nanotube Sponges
journal, February 2010


Macroscopic-Scale Assembled Nanowire Thin Films and Their Functionalities
journal, May 2012

  • Liu, Jian-Wei; Liang, Hai-Wei; Yu, Shu-Hong
  • Chemical Reviews, Vol. 112, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1021/cr200347w

A Novel Superhydrophilic and Underwater Superoleophobic Hydrogel-Coated Mesh for Oil/Water Separation
journal, August 2011


Effectiveness of bioremediation for the Exxon Valdez oil spill
journal, March 1994

  • Bragg, James R.; Prince, Roger C.; Harner, E. James
  • Nature, Vol. 368, Issue 6470
  • DOI: 10.1038/368413a0

Hygro-responsive membranes for effective oil–water separation
journal, January 2012

  • Kota, Arun K.; Kwon, Gibum; Choi, Wonjae
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2027

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: Exxon Valdez Turns 20
journal, March 2009


Effect of the porous structure of polymer foams on the remediation of oil spills
journal, March 2016

  • Pinto, Javier; Athanassiou, Athanassia; Fragouli, Despina
  • Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 49, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/49/14/145601

Succession of Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria in the Aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
journal, September 2013

  • Dubinsky, Eric A.; Conrad, Mark E.; Chakraborty, Romy
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1021/es401676y

Deep-Sea Oil Plume Enriches Indigenous Oil-Degrading Bacteria
journal, August 2010


Oil Spill Cleanup from Sea Water by Sorbent Materials
journal, December 2005

  • Bayat, A.; Aghamiri, S. F.; Moheb, A.
  • Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol. 28, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1002/ceat.200407083

Nanoscopic Patterned Materials with Tunable Dimensions via Atomic Layer Deposition on Block Copolymers
journal, September 2010

  • Peng, Qing; Tseng, Yu-Chih; Darling, Seth B.
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 22, Issue 45, p. 5129-5133
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201002465

Works referencing / citing this record:

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus
journal, July 2019

  • Zhang, Chao; Liang, Hong‐Qing; Xu, Zhi‐Kang
  • Advanced Science, Vol. 6, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1002/advs.201900883

Perspective: Interfacial materials at the interface of energy and water
journal, July 2018

  • Darling, Seth B.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5040110

The chemical physics of sequential infiltration synthesis—A thermodynamic and kinetic perspective
journal, November 2019

  • Waldman, Ruben Z.; Mandia, David J.; Yanguas-Gil, Angel
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 151, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5128108