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A new glass material engineered by Dr. Paul Edmiston at the College of Wooster has the ability to clean polluted water by absorbing contaminants like a sponge. What can't nanotechnology do?
The material is called Osorb and has amazing properties. It's a reactive glass, allowing it to bind with gasoline and other pollutants containing volatile organic compounds, but it's also hydrophobic, so it doesn't bind with water. As it collects pollutants it swells up to eight times it size. Once full, it floats to the surface to be skimmed up, removed of contaminants and then reused.
The substance could revolutionize groundwater pollution clean-up because it's relatively low cost and has the ability to rid a site of VOCs that other conventional cleaning methods can't.
Dr. Edmiston has formed a company called Absorbent Materials to market five different types of Osorb and it's already collecting venture capital.
via CleanTechnica
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Comments (16)
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written by sarah, January 12, 2010
possibly something that would work well with Canadian oil sands? and oil slicks generally. better then a million paper towels.
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written by Bryan, January 12, 2010
If the technology is thoroughly tested and found to be safe(not sure why it wouldn't be). Then this could be one of the best inventions of the decade. Think if they made it available for the public to buy. People would be throwing these in every puddle they walked past.
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written by Jimmy Butts, January 12, 2010
Yo, Megan! Jimmy Butts here. Found this rad site through Kelly's Facebook page. My earth-loving wife will love this little blog. Good to see you're doing good things. Press on little sister.
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written by Timetrvlr, January 14, 2010
Sarah is right! The Oil Sands certainly could use this technology to clean up the water in thousands of acres of holding ponds. Ducks and other wildfowl land on these ponds and are trapped by the heavy oil on the surface. The oil can be reclaimed, the sponge material reused, and wildfowl saved.
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written by bugged, January 16, 2010
Reminds me of those breathtaking headlines decades in Pop Mechanics: "Flying Car will take you to work in 3 minutes!" "New engine runs on water!" Blah, blah. Show us something that actually works, in practice...not some academic's gimmick to get more "research" funds.
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written by net97surferx, January 16, 2010
bugged -- there are cars which run on water. More specifically, modified to work with water which is broken down into H and OH... so, not so off the wall.
My concern is -- it states it's reactive to volatile organic compounds... assuming that means nice oil spills, etc. The concern pops in when I think of all the wild life coated with those same oils ala the Valdez spill... that mean the glass will be clinging/bonding to the ducks, slick covered rocks, et all?
My concern is -- it states it's reactive to volatile organic compounds... assuming that means nice oil spills, etc. The concern pops in when I think of all the wild life coated with those same oils ala the Valdez spill... that mean the glass will be clinging/bonding to the ducks, slick covered rocks, et all?
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written by Melissa, January 20, 2010
This is totally interesting! Why not make a huge sponge to clean an entire river! I mean, this is not technically wrong right?!
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written by Me, January 20, 2010
If Osorb is effective and "relatively" inexpensive, could the tankers be retrofitted with the material and prevent the horrendous and devastating damage of leaks? Remove the fossil fuel at port of discharge, and have an unsinkable boat on the way to reload! (Yeah...I'm holding my breath.)
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written by Caitlin, January 20, 2010
That's pretty nifty! What additional testing will it need before we know if it's feasible in the "real world"?
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written by Stephen Spoonamore, February 21, 2010
Thank you Ms. Treacy for covering some of work. I would like to offer a minor correction, and provide a couple of facts for the discussion.
Osorb is an adsorbate, but comparing to a sponge is a little challenging. It is used in the form of a sand-like glass crystals or in a liquid slurry of finely milled glass dust. It is capable of solving, or at least improving a number of extremely challenging environmental clean up problems.
To correct some statements here, it is not an academic exercise. ABS Materials Inc. located in Wooster Ohio is manufacturing various forms of the Osorb glass. Most of the production is currently being used to clean up underground plumes of TCE, PCE, DvC or related chlorinated solvents.
Early work is underway to use new forms of the glass for oil and gas production clean up, including Oil Sands treatments.
From a safety perspective the company has demonstrated the safety of the material and received permitting for clean ups at numerous locations.
It is a pretty nifty material. It is also in deployment in the Real World, where it has been extremely effective in some locations, and moderately effective in others. Osorb is an interesting new tool for use in environmental clean ups and for clean-manufacturing to prevent problems in the future.
But, again, it is not really like a sponge. It is glass. It is milled to sand or powder, and then applied in-situ to gather, and reductively remediate toxins.
Best regards, and keep up your great coverage of Green Tech.
Stephen Spoonamore
CEO
ABSMaterials
Osorb is an adsorbate, but comparing to a sponge is a little challenging. It is used in the form of a sand-like glass crystals or in a liquid slurry of finely milled glass dust. It is capable of solving, or at least improving a number of extremely challenging environmental clean up problems.
To correct some statements here, it is not an academic exercise. ABS Materials Inc. located in Wooster Ohio is manufacturing various forms of the Osorb glass. Most of the production is currently being used to clean up underground plumes of TCE, PCE, DvC or related chlorinated solvents.
Early work is underway to use new forms of the glass for oil and gas production clean up, including Oil Sands treatments.
From a safety perspective the company has demonstrated the safety of the material and received permitting for clean ups at numerous locations.
It is a pretty nifty material. It is also in deployment in the Real World, where it has been extremely effective in some locations, and moderately effective in others. Osorb is an interesting new tool for use in environmental clean ups and for clean-manufacturing to prevent problems in the future.
But, again, it is not really like a sponge. It is glass. It is milled to sand or powder, and then applied in-situ to gather, and reductively remediate toxins.
Best regards, and keep up your great coverage of Green Tech.
Stephen Spoonamore
CEO
ABSMaterials
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written by Stephen Spoonamore, June 30, 2010
Sorry to have not answered sooner.
It depends.
I would refer you to our web site, recently updated which covers a several of the key uses.
In most cases the glass is contained as part of a system in which contaminated waters are pumped into the system, and cleaned (or cleaner) waters come out.
In other cases the glass is injected by direct push in-situ to underground plumes of toxic materials. It remains there for years until it burns out.
Once burned out, it is a silica. Sand.
www.absmaterials.com has a good deal more detail on uses of the materials.
It depends.
I would refer you to our web site, recently updated which covers a several of the key uses.
In most cases the glass is contained as part of a system in which contaminated waters are pumped into the system, and cleaned (or cleaner) waters come out.
In other cases the glass is injected by direct push in-situ to underground plumes of toxic materials. It remains there for years until it burns out.
Once burned out, it is a silica. Sand.
www.absmaterials.com has a good deal more detail on uses of the materials.
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written by Michelle K, July 08, 2010
Now if we can only get them to send a bunch of this stuff to the gulf to help with the oil spill.....
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written by Emily, February 15, 2011
I go to the College of Wooster, where this chemical was made and is researched, and I think the beautiful thing about this chemical is that it was made by mistake. A researcher made a mistake making a combustion reaction resulting in a powder residue covering all the surfaces. When cleaning the spill, it was observed that acetone was absorbed and water was not. Thus research began to repeat the experiment (without the combustion). I am so proud of my fellow researchers. It took A LOT of work to get here.
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thanks!