A team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin has developed new technology for combatting the environmental toll of oil spills.

To improve oil spill cleanup efforts, the researchers are employing a dual-layer mesh roller in combination with an induction heating technique. The technology reportedly features material properties that enable the system to separate oil from water and subsequently remove that oil from the ocean.

Schematic illustration of induction-heating-assisted roller arrays and design for reversible interfacial process. The continuous clean-up and recovery of large-scale viscous oil spills are demonstrated. Source: Nature Sustainability (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01217-2

In the lab, the tech was demonstrated to recover up to 1,400 kg of viscous oil per square meter per hour — that is roughly 10 times better than oil cleanup methods currently in use.

The researchers explain that the rollers can potentially be built to different sizes for handling different sized oil spills. Attached and pulled along by boats deployed to oil spill areas, this technology is expected to expedite cleanup efforts from weeks to days.

To overcome the challenge of separating viscous oil from water, the team coated the mesh roller in a gel coating that can selectively adhere to oil at the point where the seawater on the bottom side and separate layer of oily water at the top side of the roller meet. Meanwhile, a device located in between the two layers is designed to capture the separated oil.

Further, the team applied non-contact induction heating to the top layer of the roller, thereby supercharging the reaction that separates oil from water — a process that in the lab achieved more than 99% oil-water separation efficiency.

The University of Texas at Austin team suggests that this process could potentially ensure that the collected oil could also be recycled and reused.

An article detailing the findings, “High-throughput clean-up of viscous oil spills enabled by a gel-coated mesh filter” appears in the journal Nature Sustainability.

For more information on the new technology, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of the University of Texas at Austin.