SMARTER STRATEGIES

Military Decontamination Could Clean Up Oil Spills

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 06-21-10 | Comments

A university researcher advises that Fibertect�an inert decontamination system that is used to neutralize chemical warfare agents�could aid recovery efforts in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

As most everyone around the world is now aware, a recent explosion and fire aboard a British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana caused the gushing of more than 5,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite repeated attempts to cap the geyser and stem the flow of oil, BP has so far failed to stop what has now become the worst oil spill in the history of the United States.

As a secondary well designed to divert the oil flow is drilled�an endeavor that could take months�efforts are shifting to cleaning up the oil that has already spilled. One material that has already proven itself in the field for the cleanup of toxic chemical warfare agents�called Fibertect�may prove effective in aiding cleanup efforts, according to its inventor, Professor Seshadri Ramkumar at The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech University.

Fibertect is a nonwoven decontamination system already proven in toxic chemical cleanups that could help absorb and contain the crude oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Fibertect allows for a green, environmentally safe, biodegradable technology that is perfect for the expanding effort to protect and decontaminate coastal lands and wildlife," says Ramkumar, who maintains that Fibertect can absorb crude oil and contain its volatile gases, isolating them from the delicate life forms in the sea waters off the coast of Louisiana.

Fibertect is manufactured in the United States by Hobbs Bonded Fibers for First Line Technology, a supplier of equipment to first responders and the military. Fibertect is already being used by hospitals, hazmat teams, fire fighters, first responders and the military for containment and decontamination, but has yet to be applied by BP in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"Fibertect has already proven to be effective in the bulk decontamination of chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals, but our proposal here is to use it to aid in the cleanup efforts in the Gulf," says First Line Technology President Amit Kapoor.

Fibertect is a flexible three-layer inert, nonparticulate, nonwoven decontamination material that can both absorb and adsorb�that is, hold contaminates fast to both the inside and the outside surface of its component fibers. Fibertect's outside layers provide mechanical strength and abrasion resistance while its central layer isolates volatile compounds like crude oil.

The central layer consists of activated carbon that is needle-punched into a composite fabric, while the outside layers consist of specially treated raw cotton fibers that can hold up to 60 times their own weight in crude oil. Unlike the synthetic polypropylene material that is currently being used for oil containment booms, Ramkumar claims that Fibertect is a biodegradable material.

Currently, BP is not using Fibertect, but several other oil companies are working with First Line Technology testing Fibertect for stockpiling on-board off-shore drilling rigs in order to be ready for the immediate cleanup of future spills.