A country’s biggest treasure is an out-of-the-box thinker who always aims to create, develop or improve ideas that would serve the world in a good manner or even help make a better life for humans. In Oman, we have remarkable examples of Omanis who strongly follow their dreams and make them come true.
One of the students of Sultan Qaboos University invented a sponge from the waste of local plants that can separate oil from water. This sponge is highly efficient, inexpensive and reusable unlike other traditional methods used to separate oil from water. This is one of the issues today as oil-from-water separating agents are known for their poor efficiency, high cost and greater energy consumption.
“From the waste of local plants, we manufactured and modified a sponge that separates oil from water. The sponge works with high efficiency of 98%, and is characterised by its low cost due to its dependence on the waste of local plants’’, said Maitha al Handasiyah, a graduate of the Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences at the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University.
Maitha pointed out that as a marine science student, the goal of inventing this sponge was finding a solution to the oil leaks problem that occurs in the sea, as when making a larger size of this sponge and placing it under the oil tanker, it will absorb any leakage that may occur, and at the same time it will absorb any oil it finds in its way. Thus, it will be a solution to the problem of oil leaks and we will be able to get an additional amount of oil.
We can also contribute to cleaning the seawater by placing the sponge of appropriate sizes under the boats, and when the boats pass with polluted water, it is cleaned by absorbing the oil in the water and on land, especially in oil extraction operations, This sponge facilitates the process of separating oil from water.
Maitha confirmed that several tests were conducted to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the sponge, and this was proven. It was also proven that the sponge is waterproof, as the contact angle between the water drop and the sponge was more than 90 degrees.
Additionally, the sponge’s absorption of chloroform that is mixed with water was tested and recorded a separation rate of 98%.
Such an invention may help protect the earth from numerous environmental problems that occur due to oil consumption.
