A new super-absorbent, ‘swellable’ glass material could prove useful in oil spill cleanups, groundwater remediation, and removal of pollutants such as pesticides and pharmaceutical products from water.
The product, called ‘Osorb’, is a nanostructure material comprised of silicon atoms bound to a proprietary organic compound. The filtration material absorbs organic contaminants the way a sponge soaks up water; once it has absorbed the contaminants, they can be physically removed from the silica material by heating or rinsing and the filtration product reused over and over, says Paul Edmiston, an analytical chemist at the College of Wooster and the chief science officer of ABSMaterials, Inc., a company based in Wooster, Ohio.
Edmiston discussed the product’s potential for spill cleanup and remediation during a webcast today hosted by the National Science Foundation, which has provided several grants to ABSMaterials. The company was awarded a $200,000 NSF RAPID grant in 2010 to study Osorb’s potential to help clean up fouled water during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The discovery of the material’s properties was “serendipitous”, says Edmiston. The process is entirely mechanical: the material expands as it captures organic molecules, a process that Edmiston describes as a “mechanical explosion”. This swelling process is energetic: every gram of Osorb can lift about two kilograms of weight, so “about a thermos can lift your car,” Edmiston says.
To demonstrate its properties, Edmiston poured a fuel additive containing gasoline, jet fuel, and detergents into a clean bottle of water. He then added about a tablespoon of Osorb powder into the bottle and shook it. The Osorb-oil mixture quickly separated away from the water and the oily, gelatinous layer rose to the top. After squeezing the purified water through a syringe with a mechanical filter to remove any traces of the Osorb material, Edmiston tasted the water. “How’s it taste?” asked Joshua Chamot, the NSF media officer who facilitated the event. “Fine,” says Edmiston.
The product can also be used to remove groundwater contaminants such as chlorinated solvents and is already being used in experimental groundwater remediation projects in Ohio, says Edmiston. In addition, Osorb could be useful for routine cleanup of oil-contaminated water that comes out of the ground when oil is extracted. For every barrel of oil that is retrieved, another 10 barrels of contaminated water is produced, he says. Instead of creating wastewater, water purified with Osorb could be reused for drinking water or agriculture.
Because of its swelling potential, the Osorb material would not be deployed into the ocean to collect contaminants in a case like the Gulf spill; rather, water contaminated in a spill would be purified inside of a vortex tank system.
Photo: Clean water after treatment looked on by Stephen Jolly, VP Systems, and Doug Martin, Production Manager.
Posted on behalf of Amanda Mascarelli