The technology based on metal oxide nanoparticles, which makes it possible to accurately determine an oil spill even under a layer of ice and snow, was developed in Russia. This will reduce the time of liquidation of the accident, thereby minimizing the impact on the environment, the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation told TASS on Tuesday.
There is no technology for determining the scale of oil and petroleum products spills under a layer of ice and snow in the world. The work on its creation is carried out by scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) together with the company PJSC NGK Slavneft with the support of the program of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia “Priority 2030”.
“It will be possible to determine the exact boundaries of the oil spill using the technology of introducing stabilized metal oxide nanoparticles: the installation will respond to the presence of nanoparticles on the periphery of the oil slick, due to which the operator will be able to establish the boundaries of the spill and fix the area of contamination. At the same time, the area of contamination itself will be detected by means of capturing the magnetic moment of nanoparticles,” the report says.
For the study, scientists selected nanoparticles with certain parameters: they should be stable in the conditions of the far north, not increase the environmental impact when interacting with petroleum products and be easily removed after the end of work.
“Ultrafine materials meet all these criteria. The main criterion when choosing nanopowders was the presence of ferromagnetic properties, that is, spontaneous magnetization. Therefore, in the end, the choice fell on finely dispersed metal powders obtained by electric pulse discharges in a layer of dispersed loading,” the words of Maria Alekseeva, an engineer at the Department of Chemical Engineering of TPU, are quoted in the message.
As part of the study, scientists conducted experiments to study the behavior of nanoparticles and petroleum products on several oil samples with different properties from each other, and nine varieties of metal nanopowders. The results of the experiment showed that the nanoparticles began to move from the center of the spot to the periphery, thereby completely closing the spot into a “ring”, performing the task of distribution exactly along the border.
Now the technology is being tested in the laboratory. It is planned to be tested on the territory of the existing field – scientists are working on a device that could capture the magnetic moment of nanoparticles and thereby identify the boundaries of the spill. This is the author’s development of TPU scientists.
“It turned out that there are no such developments now, since a large number of factors must be taken into account to create such a technology. Environmental protection is a priority for the development of industry in the Russian Federation, so companies are trying to minimize the risks of anthropogenic impact. In this regard, such developments are relevant for industry companies and are a production necessity,” Alekseeva’s words are quoted in the message.
Source: TASS
