Remeber this past article (http://mznblog.wordpress.com/2006/08/13/damage-is-done/), well researchers at Queen’s University in Canada have found an effective and environmentally friendly way to mix (and unmix) oil and water. This could help the oil industry to clean up oil spills and extract oil from tar sands. The ’surfactant’ (surface active agent) used at Queen’s provides several advantages over current methods. It’s cheap, reversible, and doesn’t require metals, acid, or light. In fact, it can be switched on and off by the respective presence of CO2 or air. But as the researchers don’t give a clue about commercial availability for their ’surfactant,’ I guess there are still some problems to solve.
Read more: http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9781-oil-and-water-mix-and-unmix-on-demand.html
