No solvent is required for spraying the gelator and hence it is environment friendly

More efficient and quick absorption of crude oil from the sea following marine spill has now become possible thanks to scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) in Thiruvananthapuram who have developed a hydrophobic sorbent that can suck up oil and congeal it. A hydrophobic material automatically becomes oil-loving and takes up oil when it comes in contact with it. The results were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Hydrophobic sorbent

A two-member research team led by Prof. Kana M. Sureshan from the School of Chemistry at IISER developed the hydrophobic sorbent by using a cheap raw material (mannitol) and cellulose pulp as a matrix. Mannitol was converted into a hydrophobic gelator through a one-step process and a solution was made using this compound. Cellulose balls the size of marbles were then dipped in the solution and dried.

“The gelator gets adsorbed on the cellulose fibre through hydrogen bonding. This process of adsorption of gelator on the cellulose fibre matrix changes the cellulose matrix from being very hydrophilic (water-loving) to hydrophobic (water repelling),” says Prof. Sureshan. A hydrophobic material naturally becomes oleilophilic (oil-loving).

Unlike other alternatives, the sorbent can be easily applied over oil-water mixture ,and no solvent is needed for spraying the gelator thus making it environmental benign.The gelator adsorbed on the surface of cellulose fibre is able to absorb oil when it comes in contact with it.


More: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/scooping-out-oil-spills-made-easy-by-iiser-thiruvananthapuram/article19385272.ece

LINCOLN — On Friday, the developer of the Keystone XL pipeline said what more and more people in the oil industry have been saying: that the Keystone XL pipeline might be unnecessary.

Some opponents of the controversial tar sands pipeline have suggested this, but more and more people inside the oil industry are saying time has passed by the project.

Consider this:

» A column on oilprice.com questioned whether the Keystone XL had become “obsolete” due to low oil prices and cheaper sources of oil than Canada.

» “A New Problem for the Keystone XL: Oil Companies Don’t Want It” was the headline in a Wall Street Journal story last month about the shortage of oil producers willing to sign long-term contracts to finance the XL.

» Jeff Share, editor of Pipeline & Gas Journal out of Houston, wrote that the revival of the pipeline by President Donald Trump was “the biggest fake news story of the year.”

“As much as I would like to see it get built, I have serious doubts that it ever will,” Share said in an interview with The World-Herald. “Too much time has passed, too much controversy, the economics no longer work, and the need is far less.”


More: http://www.starherald.com/news/regional_statewide/skeptics-in-oil-industry-question-whether-keystone-xl-pipeline-is/article_48e2cc9a-e90d-53e5-beef-d44dfbd2de75.html


In this February 2012 photo, miles of pipe for the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline are stacked in a field near Ripley, Oklahoma. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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