how is the oil seperated from the water when there has being oil spill?

Question

when there is a oil spill how is the oil seperated from the water

Answer 1

Oil naturally seperates itself from the water. Try this experiment at home. Get out a glass, fill it with water. Now add a few drops of motor oil and see what happens. If you plan on dumping the contents down the drain, you should probably test it with something like vegetable oil... it should work well also but doesn't have the same color.

As far as cleanup goes, they often use gigantic sheets of cotton... cotton readily absorbes oil much better than water... you can try that too... put a layer of oil in the glass, and dip a cotton ball in it (real cotton) and you'll see for yourself a small version of exactly how they often clean major oil spills.

Answer 2

If it is volatile and light such as kerosene, gasoline, naphtha etc.. then dispersants is the answer (dispersants are some chemicals that breaks the surface tension of the lquid so that it can't hold together) and those are used in open seas.. the whole idea is to break the oils' tendency to be in one place as a big stain floating on water.
If it is heavy such as gas oil, fuel oil, etc.. by containing the spill first by floating booms and then suck it with pumps.
Anyway, the sucked oil/water mixture can be introduced to a decanter (using centrifugal force to separate oil from water) or to another oil/water separating equipment (such as API or CPI separators) found in most waste water treatment plants.

Answer 3

oil naturally separates from water, but not in instances where the oil is spilled in large quantitites throughout a large surface area, ie. in the natural environment.

the exxon valdez was the worst oil spill in history. a few measures were taken to clean it up, among them:

1. fires
2. mechanical clean up (using skimmers)
3. dispersants

however, it couldn't all be cleaned up and the effects are still there today.

Answer 4

crude oil when spilled into water, tends to float, and adhere to solid objects.
it can be collected by pumps and separators. it can be absorbed by a several absorbent materials that float on water. it can be treated by oil eating bacteria.

Answer 5

either through the use of detergents or through burning it!!