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Oil spill

Let's see how we can remove the oil from the water surface

Material:

- several large bowls,
- water,
- vegetable oil,
- spoon,
- wooden toothpicks,
- fine sawdust,
- sand.

Instruction:

Take a bowl, fill it with water, add a little oil and stir.

Try to create bigger oil stains. Mix the oil with wood shavings. Try to get oil stains and wood shavings close together.

Use fine particles of sawdust to bind oil (sawdust will be floating, because it has hydrophobic properties to the oil and lower density).

Try to charge the oil with sand to flooding.

 

Explanation:

In April 2010, there was an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The outbreak has caused disastrous oil spill in the ocean. It is estimated that a few months into the ocean per day leaking 5000 -100 000 barrels of oil. Oil spill reaches the southern coast of the United States. Previous attempts to remove oil stains consisted of burning on the surface of the water and the use of chemical and mechanical bonding agents.

When we add sand to the oil, the sand is associated with the oil and because of the weight drops along with it to the bottom. You can use also washing liquid to make this effect faster. Best results in the removal of oil is achieved by the combination of mechanical and chemical methods. High impact on the effectiveness of each of the methods is for example the amount of binder used. In the water will always be a bit of oil. The wild ecosystem removes oil over time.