Canadian scientists claim to have developed unique technology to clean up oil spills.
Ingenuity Lab, whose team specialises in nanotechnology, has reportedly created a product to suck the oil out of water.
The project has received $1.7m from Natural Resources Canada.
Ingenuity Lab say its device acts as a sponge – using a carbon-nanotube mesh – that attracts and then soaks up oil from the water.
Once the oil has been soaked up, the mesh is removed from the water and targeted with ultraviolet light, heat or electricity, which helps to expel the oil.
Carlo Montemagno, director of Ingenuity Lab and leader of the project, hopes the technology will be used on ocean vessels, as well as in rivers and streams.
He said: “We were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the membrane a year ago. Now we are in the process of developing a system for producing it at a large scale.”
With the funding, Montemagno and his team will work on a preproduction pilot system to produce the material at scale. They want to start real-world field-testing in under two years’ time.