These chemically modified nanocellulose sponges are highly absorbent

May 7, 2014 20:19 GMT  ·  By

Energy companies such as BP, Shell, and Gazprom are nothing if not determined to carry out drilling activities in whatever regions might hold some oil reserves.

Probably looking to make sure that they are able to do some damage control when oil spills occur in the areas that they are busy exploiting, a team of scientists have developed a new generation of custom-made and really fancy sponges.

These sponges are made from a material that researchers call chemically modified nanocellulose, and they are said to be surprisingly light and absorbent, Alpha Galileo explains.

It is believed that, at some point in the future, these sponges will be used to clean up natural ecosystems affected by one accidental oil spill or another, the same source details.

According to the researchers who created them, the sponges would not be very difficult to use. On the contrary, all one would have to do is toss them in contaminated environments and recover them after they had had the chance to fill up on oil.

The sponges have until now only been tested in laboratory conditions, but specialists say that the results they got while experimenting with them are nothing short of impressive.

Thus, it would appear that the material that these sponges are made from enables them to take it about 50 times their own weight of either mineral or engine oil.

What's more, word has it that, despite bulking up to such impressive sizes, the sponges keep their shape, which means that recovering them after they had feasted on floating oil films should not a very complicated thing to do.

Experiments have shown that, apart from mineral or engine oil, these sponges can also be used to remove compounds such as ethanol, acetone, silicone oil, or chloroform from a given environment.

“The sponges can collect a wide range of organic solvents and oils with absorption capacities up to 100 times their own weight, depending on the density of the liquids,” specialists details.

The scientists working on this project further explain that, unlike other means of dealing with oil spills, the sponges themselves are environmentally friendly. This is because the main ingredients that go into making them are cellulose-containing materials like wood pulp, agricultural byproducts or waste materials.

For the time being, the sponges are not available for use in real-life conditions such as the ones in the Arctic and other regions that are vulnerable to oil spills. However, their creators hope that it will not be long until they find an industry partner and begin large-scale production.