Cotton filter could prevent oil spread

The researcher reports that the filter was successfully tested off the coast of Louisiana and shown to simultaneously clean water and preserve the oil.

Di Gao, an assistant professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, created his filter as a possible method to help manage the spreading oil slick that resulted from the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform on 20 April 2010.

Gao has submitted his idea through the Deepwater Horizon Response website, managed by the consortium of companies and government agencies overseeing the disaster response.

Gao’s filter hinges on a polymer that is both hydrophilic − it bonds with the hydrogen molecules in water − and oleophobic, meaning that it repels oil. When the polymer is applied to an ordinary cotton filter, it allows water to pass through but not oil.

The filter is produced by submerging the cotton in a liquid solution containing the polymer then drying it in an oven or in open air, Gao explained.