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Despite the nation's best efforts to prevent oil spills, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that a number of them still occur each year.  When a spill takes place, specially trained and equipped emergency responders are instantly mobilized, and the products of chemistry take center stage to help minimize damage to fragile ecosystems.

It’s a fact.  Chemistry plays a key role in environmental clean up.

Clean-up technicians use many devices to stop the spread of a spill and remove it from the water and shorelines.  These tools include:

• Booms: Booms are floating barriers that are placed around the oil and its source.  There are different types of booms for different marine environments. Among them are foam-filled booms made of PVC or urethane that are used in sheltered waters; rigid plastic floats used in permanent installations; and inflatable booms that can be deployed from boats in open waters. The booms’ “skirts” often are made of a strong fabric coated with nylon (the first manmade fiber) or fiberglass.

• Skimmers: After the booms corral the oil, skimmers collect it from the water’s surface. A common type of skimmer employs chemically engineered oleophilic (or oil-attracting) materials such as “rope mops.” Made of fibers like polypropylene, the mops are circulated in the contaminated water and then wrung out inside a skimming vessel or portable machine.  Skimmers are not only effective in removing oil from the environment, but also facilitating recycling and benign disposal of recovered oil. 

• Chemical dispersants: These are specially designed chemical agents used to break up concentrations of organic materials. These chemical substances do not remove the oil from the water, but rather break the slick into small droplets and prevent re-coagulation.  This speeds the oil’s degradation, helping to disperse it and make it less harmful to shorelines and wildlife. Normally only used in the open sea, dispersants can be sprayed from vessels or aircraft.

If the spilled oil reaches land, spill responders use another set of clean-up methods.  These include:

• Bioremediation: In this technique, beaches and shorelines can be fertilized to promote growth of microscopic bacteria that eat the hydrocarbons. 

• Vacuum trucks/pressure hoses: These techniques can be used either to suck up the spilled oil or push it back into the water to be contained.  Not just any hose will do, of course, but only hose material made of multi-ply polyester that can stand up to chemicals and rough use.

• Sorbents: These sponge-like materials are often used in the final stages of a cleanup.  Sorbents designed expressly for absorption of oil and/or petroleum-based liquids are chemically engineered to be hydrophobic, which means they will not absorb water or water-based liquids. Many petroleum sorbents are made of polypropylene, a highly versatile—and, for this purpose, thirsty—synthetic material. A polypropylene pad measuring16" by 20" by 3/16", for instance, can reportedly absorb 28-32 fluid ounces of oil or petroleum-based liquid.

The equipment and methods used will always depend on a variety of factors like location and weather.  What is not subject to contingency is that all clean-up efforts will, always and everywhere, depend on chemistry.

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