Oil in the water — Science News, 14 October 1972
[In the late 1960s]The best way to clean up oil was to place straw on the surface, then pick up the oily straw with a pair of pitchforks or by hand. Now industry … has devised an arsenal of oil cleanup chemicals. Thin-layer chemicals can be used to herd oil together and to thicken it…. You can also find absorbent chemicals. Still other chemicals … disperse oil throughout the water. Others chemicals are promising as oil-burning agents.
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While chemicals are still the norm, the future of oil cleaning technology could be microbial. Recent research has shown that soil microbes have been able to break down some of the oil in the 2010 spill. Deepwater Horizon spillThe Gulf of Mexico (SN Online: 6/26/15). Electrical bacteria, which can channel electricity through their thread-like bodies, may be able to help. turning oil munchers’ waste into fuel for the microbesScientists reported (SN: 7/16/22 & 7/30/22, p. 24). Microbial mops aren’t yet ready for prime time, so chemical dispersants, fire and spongelike sorbents remain key tools in cleanup kits.
