Effective Workflow to Clean-Up Oil Spill Using Ferromagnetic Nano-Particles

Abstract

Permanent environmental damage cannot be compensated in terms of money. Unfortunately, oil spills contaminate water, restraining marine species of their habitat and food supply. Despite the numerous methods available today to clean up the water body by separation of oil and water, none have restored water to its previous quality or saved marine animals from its deleterious effects to the full extent. The biggest hurdle to this cause is the sunken oil; the oil which may have either sunken mixed with sand and mud or by dispersion due to weathering. Mechanical containment with recovery and use of dispersants will always be the most widely used response option for surface clean up due to its capability to directly remove oil from environment till today. Another spill response tool is In situ burning which is under study from several decades. Efforts are being made to enhance In situ burning such as Aerial Ignition System (AIS) and Chemical Herders. Although it is expected that this oil will float right up due to the density difference and cleaning will hence be easy, this is not always the case. The authors suggest the most effective workflow to clean up surface oil in marine oil spills as well as a way to tackle the sunken oil droplets. Choosing of an effective clean up method should always start with determining the amount of oil, density of oil, type of oil (crude or refined), salinity of water and the weather conditions. The authors thus propose an arrangement for real time tracking and mapping of an oil spill and then using most effective modern cleanup methods like booms, in situ burning, dispersants and skimmers followed by the use of polymer coated ferromagnetic nano particles to clean up sunken oil droplets. Magnetic nanoparticles are non-toxic nano sized sponges that sink deep inside the water body, absorb 10 times their weight of oil and float back up on the surface. Experiments with two samples of oil were conducted to check the effectiveness of ferrous nanoparticles in attracting oil out of water in various concentrations of nanoparticles to find the optimum level.