{"id":11027,"date":"2017-03-21T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/researchers-test-hotter-faster-and-cleaner-way-to-fight-oil-spills\/"},"modified":"2017-03-21T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T03:50:00","slug":"researchers-test-hotter-faster-and-cleaner-way-to-fight-oil-spills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/researchers-test-hotter-faster-and-cleaner-way-to-fight-oil-spills\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Test Hotter, Faster And Cleaner Way To Fight Oil Spills"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Debbie Elliott<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Researchers at the Coast Guard’s Joint Maritime Test Facility on Little Sand Island, in Mobile Bayoff the Alabama coast, fit the Flame Refluxer with coils for a test burn.<\/p>\n

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Debbie Elliott\/NPR<\/p>\n

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Debbie Elliott\/NPR<\/p>\n

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On a cold and windy day off the coast of Alabama, a team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute<\/a> in Massachusetts gathers, conducting the first test outside a laboratory for a potential new solution to a challenging problem: cleaning oil spills from water.<\/p>\n

The invention, the Flame Refluxer, is “very simple,” says Ali Rangwala, a professor of fire protection engineering: Imagine a giant Brillo pad of copper wool sandwiched between layers of copper screen, with springy copper coils attached to the top.<\/p>\n

“The coils collect the heat from the flame and they transmit it through the copper blanket,” Rangwala explains.<\/p>\n

The goal is to make a hotter, faster and more complete burn that leaves less pollution.<\/p>\n

Cleaning oil from water is a challenge, especially on the open sea. That was dramatically evident seven years ago, when a massive oil spill during the BP disaster polluted the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

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\n The Flame Refluxer after a test burn.<\/p>\n

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Debbie Elliott\/NPR<\/p>\n

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Responders typically use three cleanup methods in an oil spill: skimmers and oil booms to soak it up, dispersants to break it up, and fire to burn it up. That’s called in-situ, or in-place, burning.<\/p>\n

The federal government is backing research on the Flame Refluxer, which supporters hope will provide an effective and ecologically sound alternative.<\/p>\n

For the test \u2014 at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Joint Maritime Test Facility on Little Sand Island in Mobile Bay \u2014 workers place the blanket inside a ring-shaped floating protective barrier, or fire boom, in a concrete pool. Oil is pumped from a nearby tank, and a long torch-like lighter sets it afire.<\/p>\n