The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) has invented an oil gelator chemical to remove oil spills from sea as well as earth surface and has obtained patent for the same from the Central government’s patent office.
A release from MRPL said the invention comprises new organic gel-forming molecules derived from simple and cheaper chemicals that were synthesised and characterised.
The molecules exhibit good gelation behaviour when they are exposed to oil spillages. Due to this behaviour, they get solidified quickly. These solidified gels could easily be recovered from the surface of the land or water bodies. It is an effective method to mitigate oil pollution from the environment.
The invention comes at a time when oil spillages are causing detrimental effects on the environment and living organisms. Spillage includes any spill of crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, hydraulic oil, lubricating oil, etc. The clean up action in the event of spillage includes containing the spread of oil spill and recover or remove the floating oil from the water surface. One of the removal methods was to convert the oil film on the water surface into a semi-solid gel and contain the spread. Some mechanical exercise was needed to remove the jellified oil.
Lalbagh: Suresh Jayaram’s search for that elusive apple tree
The patent gives MRPL the exclusive right to exclude others from copying, manufacturing, selling, or importing the invention without permission. The patent for organic gelators was the third patent for MRPL with the first two being a patent for “Process Distillation of Petroleum Fractions – by using fuel gas/hydrocarbon vapours instead of steam” Oxidative Treatment of Refinery Spent Caustic.
