Cleaning up oil spills with magnets at MIT
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- MIT researchers have developed a new technique for magnetically separating oil and water that could be used to clean up oil spills. They believe that, with their technique, the oil could be recovered for use, offsetting much of the cost of cleanup.
The researchers will present their work at the International Conference on Magnetic Fluids in January. Shahriar Khushrushahi, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is lead author on the paper, joined by Markus Zahn, the Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor of Electrical Engineering, and T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering. The team has also filed two patents on its work.
In the MIT researchers' scheme, water-repellent ferrous nanoparticles would be mixed with the oil, which could then be separated from the water using magnets. The researchers envision that the process would take place aboard an oil-recovery vessel, to prevent the nanoparticles from contaminating the environment. Afterward, the nanoparticles could be magnetically removed from the oil and reused.
Video: Melanie Gonick
Additional footage courtesy of: Shahriar Khushrushahi
I've been doing research on this same topic for the past two years. This has actually been going around since 1970 (the patent was approved 1972 with patent number 3635819). Since then numerous patents have been filed by GMC regarding this technology. Interestingly it has still not been produced on a large scale and therefore implies that there is a problem with the technology for large scale action.
The scale needed is impractical to actually apply this technology in real world applications.
And how do you plan to put the nano particles into the oil gushing out of a broken well? And how will stray particles interact with fish and then humans that eat said fish?
No no, The oil recovery vessel (A Big Ship) goes to the spill, With a contaminated seawater pumping system that contains the np's within the ship. See? Pump seawater into ship, run through onboard nano filter system, And expel oil-free seawater out the other side.
Nifty idea. So how would this solution get to the oil? Maybe put it on the ship as a fail-safe so that it would get mixed in as soon as a leak is detected? Or can it be dumped in after the spill? And if the latter, what happens to the part of the solution (I take it that it is mainly some ferromagnet and water?) that didn't get mixed in?
And more importantly (and more fun), will I be able to fish the fish in that area with magnet (if they had consumed enough of the ferrous particle)?
Smiler to the road spike.
The car being chased runs over a tube, which breaks open. Then a bunch of magnets which jump/ricochet all over the lower part of the oil pan, slowly burning up the block due to lack of oil circulation.
this deserves major funding
This is genius! This definitely deserves funding. It could be an unbelievably effective technique. On top of the efficient disposal of the oil, there would probably be minimal effect on the local marine wildlife.
The particles being responsive to magnetism doesn't mean they have to be magnetic themselves. For instance, a regular bar of iron would neither deflect a compass nor affect navigation, but it can still be attracted to a magnet.
As long as you have to transport them, I think there will be a risk of spills anyway. Granted hemp seed oil might be growable in more places so you won't have to transport quite as much, the fact that we have different temperature/humidity/land use in each country means that this solution is not yet perfect for the world. I know SEA uses quite a bit of palm oil to that same effect, but it's just not quite enough to offset petrol.
even still, we need to change our sources of energy (less dependency on oil)
eco-friendly products, advances like this, all great, but, I still think to really fix anything gotta see the big picture.
It could meet up with Tankers wherever it went and pump the oil it recovered right into their holds.
Yeah it prob be expensive but it'll be paid for by the oil companies. Also cost can be recovered in turn around time and amount recovered can be improved.
So if i got this right, they have created small nano particles what can be put in the oil when it has been spilled to sea. How those particles can be put just into oil when it's all over sea, without loosing those and creating even more problems. This would be great if every tanker would be required to attach nano particles before leaving dock and when it's arrived to destination, there would be station to separate particles and those could be used again!
yep small nano micro iron parts in the oil.....oil is thicker then water so the tiny parts will stay in/over the oil...magnets over it or magnets to pull the oil to an closed area where u can filter it from the water and done?something like that?But how do u get the oil with the ferous nanoparticles from the (electro)magnets what creats the suction something like on/off?
Then you need a mechanism to clean the nano particles that didnt mix with the oil and are flowing in the ocean and absorbed into the food chain.
Being that magnetism messes with animals navigation which is pretty much little compasses in their brain, is there a way to isolate the range of these fields?...would hate to see massive animal die off because of this...i do love this idea though!
Great!!! Thank you for your research!!!!
What happened to all the oil spilled in all of the oceans from sunk vessels during WW1 and WW11 ? Did they worry about it back then?
My dear friend those oil spills have already desolved in the depths of Atlantic Ocean and polluted the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for generations to come. It simply is a pitty that we leave behind a totally polluted planet.
So you cordon off the spill then mix the nano particles then collect the oil water nano particles mixture?
i could see this being added to motor oil, to help the police stop a high speed chase.
Great minds think alike ;)
awesome idea!!!!
Ingenious
Awesome!!!!!!!
But aren't those nanoparticles very expensive? I know ferrofluids are expesive, and if the oil is cheap, that must be the particles that make the cost so high
1. Find problem
2. Throw magnets at it until it fixes problem
3.??????
4.Profit
The nano particles are attracted to the oil.
Fuckin' magnets, how do they work?
Oops just read the intro
cool
It is sad that MIT doesn't know how to shoot a video. We see tons of footage of talking heads but barely snippits of the actual device working. Is this just PR, ego boosting, promo? Why not educate us. We can listen to words and look at video at the same time even if we are not from MIT.
the dumbest idea i ever heard.
JUST DIG SAND UP AND FORCE THE OIL TO THE BOTTOM WHERE IT CAME FROM... or did the oil come form space. hum space oil.
No, your idea is better. Prevention first.