Tag Archives: 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation

A GEnIuS approach to oil spill remediation at 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation

In light of recent local events (an oil spill in Vancouver’s [Canada] English Bay, a popular local beach [more details in my April 16, 2015 post]), it seems appropriate to mention an* environmentally friendly solution to mopping up oil spills (oil spill remediation). A May 21, 2015 news item on Azonano features a presentation on the topic at hand (Note: A link has been removed),

Directa Plus at 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation to present GEnIuS, the innovative project that leads to the creation of a graphene-based product able to remove hydrocarbons from polluted water and soil.

The Forum untitled “Boosting competitiveness and innovation” is being held by the European Commission on 20th and 21st of May in Barcelona. The main purpose of this event is presenting the last developments in the eco-innovation field: an important moment where emerging and cutting-edge innovators will get in contact with new promising solutions under political, financial and technological point of view.

Directa Plus research has driven to the creation of an ecologic, innovative and highly effective oil-adsorbent, characterized by unique performances in oil adsorbency, and at the same time absence of toxicity and flammability, and the possibility to recover oil.

The creation of this graphene-based oil-adsorbent product, commercialized as Grafysorber, has been promoted by GEnIuS project and already approved by the Italian Ministry of Enviroment to be used in occasion of oil spills clean-up activities.

Giulio Cesareo, Directa Plus President and CEO, commented:

“Grafysorber embodies the nano-carbon paradox -in fact, with a nano-carbon material we are able to cut down part of damages caused by hydrocarbons, derived from carbon itself.

“Moreover, our product, once exhausted after depuration of water, finishes positively its life cycle inside the asphalt and bitumen, introducing new properties as thermal conductivity and mechanical reinforcement. I believe that every company is obliged to work following a sustainable approach to guarantee a balanced use of resources and their reuse, where possible.”

I have mentioned a Romanian project employing Directa Plus’s solution, Grafysorber in a December 30, 2014 post. At the time, the product name was called Graphene Plus and Grafysorber was a constituent of the product.

You can find more information about Graphene Eco Innovative Sorbent (GENIUS) here and about Directa Plus here. The company is located in Italy.

One final bit about oil spills and remediation, the Deepwater Horizon/Gulf/BP oil spill has spawned, amongst many others, a paper from the University of Georgia (US) noting that we don’t know that much about the dispersants used to clean up, from a May 14, 2015 University of Georgia news release on EurekAlert,

New commentary in Nature Reviews Microbiology by Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia and her colleagues argues for further in-depth assessments of the impacts of dispersants on microorganisms to guide their use in response to future oil spills.

Chemical dispersants are widely used in emergency responses to oil spills in marine environments as a means of stimulating microbial degradation of oil. After the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, dispersants were applied to the sea surface and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the latter of which was unprecedented. Dispersants were used as a first line of defense even though little is known about how they affect microbial communities or the biodegradation activities they are intended to spur.

The researchers document historical context for the use of dispersants, their approval by the Environmental Protection Agency and the uncertainty about whether they stimulate or in fact inhibit the microbial degradation of oil in marine ecosystems.

One challenge of testing the toxicity from the use of dispersants on the broader ecosystem is the complex microbial communities of the different habitats represented in a large marine environment, such as the Gulf of Mexico. Development of model microbial communities and type species that reflect the composition of surface water, deep water, deep-sea sediments, beach sediments and marsh sediments is needed to evaluate the toxicity effects of dispersants.

“The bottom line is that we do not truly understand the full range of impacts that dispersants have on microbial communities, and we must have this knowledge in hand before the next marine oil spill occurs to support the decision-making process by the response community,” Joye said.

I hope the Canadians who are overseeing our waterways are taking note.

*’a’ changed to ‘an’ for grammatical correctness on Dec. 18, 2015.