OILTRAP: On-Site TEGA Sorbent for Recovery of Oil Slicks at Sea

Oil spills at sea are cleaned slowly, and most of the collected oil is lost as waste. This preprint describes OILTRAP, an on-site sorbent system based on TEGA, a graphene-like nanocarbon material produced aboard the response boat by a refrigerator-sized unit. The unit delivers 50-300 kg of sorbent per hour on diesel fuel at 3-8 L/h, deploys in 15 minutes and is operated by a crew of two. One kilogram of TEGA binds 80-160 kg of oil, heavy fractions best of all, and turns the film into floating flakes that do not sink. The flakes are collected and pressed on the boat, and 90-95% of the collected oil is returned to a refinery. The remainder is pressed into fuel briquettes, so the process leaves no waste. We describe the operating sequence and relate it to the needs of coastal states that depend on desalinated seawater.