Smart sponge selectively soaks up oil in water

The smart sponge can reportedly absorb over 30 times its weight in oil, making it inexpensive and efficient material to clean up oil spills without harming marine life. After squeezing the oil out of the sponge, the team at Northwestern said it can be reused many dozens of times without losing its effectiveness.

Sponge speeds up removal of oil from wastewater

"Oil spills have devastating and immediate effects on the environment, human health and economy," said Northwestern's Vinayak Dravid, who led the research. "Although many spills are small and may not make the evening news, they are still profoundly invasive to the ecosystem and surrounding community. Our sponge can remediate these spills in a more economic, efficient and eco-friendly manner than any of the current state-of-the-art solutions."

The research has been published in Industrial Engineering and Chemical Research.

Oil spill clean-up is an expensive and complicated process that often harms marine life and further damages the environment. Currently used solutions include burning the oil, using chemical dispersants to breakdown oil into very small droplets, skimming oil floating on top of water and/or absorbing it with sorbents.