The Times of Israel has reported on another ingenious Israeli invention: a sponge to mop up and ‘eat’ oil spills.
Scientists at southern Israel’s Ben-Gurion University have engineered a high-tech sponge made from plant fibers that can both mop up an oil spill and feed the bacteria that feast on oil and break it down, the university said.
The usual methods for tackling oil spills are to skim and soak up the black mess or wait for nature’s microscopic cleaners to digest it.
But oil-eating bacteria operate slowly in open water because they lack essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
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The new research, led by Prof. Ariel Kushmaro and headed by Dr. Danit Lisa Karsagi Biron in the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, combines physical strength with sped-up biology.
The scientists created a spongy material made from cellulose fibers enriched with nutrients, then freeze-dried and baked at high heat (pyrolysis) to create a porous aerogel that acts like an ultra-light sponge. It repels water while locking onto petroleum compounds and can absorb roughly 100 times its own mass in crude oil or fuel in just seconds.
Once the oil is trapped, the aerogel transforms into a micro-ecosystem. The baked-in nutrients give local oil-degrading bacteria a comfortable platform from which to guzzle their favorite food source. Instead of floating away or washing out, the nutrients remain on the sponge. Bacteria swarm the fibers, form dense colonies, and rapidly break down the trapped pollutants, then devour the sponge itself.
I think I was able to follow that.
Meanwhile, somewhere across the ocean…
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