(Notícia em Inglês)
Some of the same innovators who produce biodiesel are hoping their product could soon be used in the Gulf of Mexico, cleaning up the beaches and marshes ravaged by the BP oil spill.
Methyl esters, the chemical yielded in biodiesel production, can be formulated into a biobased solvent that is federally listed as a shoreline washing agent for oil spill clean-up.
The process starts with crews spraying the biosolvent from shallow draft boats onto oil-covered marsh vegetation or small beaches normally unreachable by land, said Randall von Wedel, founder and principal biochemist of CytoCulture International, a company that pioneered the method in the 1990s.
After the biosolvent is applied, it is followed with a gentle “rain” of seawater to rinse the dissolved petroleum mixture off the plants and shoreline for recovery on the water, using small mechanical skimmers.
“Unlike other clean-up techniques, the beauty of this is that it is a green process that is nonaggressive and won’t do any more damage to the oil-covered marshes and other sensitive habitats,” von Wedel said. “We’re growing concerned that the approach will be to slash and burn, which is incredibly damaging to the environment and will kill wildlife. They don’t need to do that.”
biodieselmagazine.com»
Some of the same innovators who produce biodiesel are hoping their product could soon be used in the Gulf of Mexico, cleaning up the beaches and marshes ravaged by the BP oil spill.
Methyl esters, the chemical yielded in biodiesel production, can be formulated into a biobased solvent that is federally listed as a shoreline washing agent for oil spill clean-up.
The process starts with crews spraying the biosolvent from shallow draft boats onto oil-covered marsh vegetation or small beaches normally unreachable by land, said Randall von Wedel, founder and principal biochemist of CytoCulture International, a company that pioneered the method in the 1990s.
After the biosolvent is applied, it is followed with a gentle “rain” of seawater to rinse the dissolved petroleum mixture off the plants and shoreline for recovery on the water, using small mechanical skimmers.
“Unlike other clean-up techniques, the beauty of this is that it is a green process that is nonaggressive and won’t do any more damage to the oil-covered marshes and other sensitive habitats,” von Wedel said. “We’re growing concerned that the approach will be to slash and burn, which is incredibly damaging to the environment and will kill wildlife. They don’t need to do that.”
biodieselmagazine.com»