Posts Tagged: "oil drilling"

Five years later, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill inspires advances in oil spill cleanup tech

Nanotechnologies are proving to have a major impact on oil spill cleanup innovation in recent years. Researchers at Ohio State University have pioneered a type of mesh coated with a fluorosurfactant, a material which attracts water but repels oil. The mesh has many nanoparticle bumps sandwiched between layers of polymer, which increase the mesh’s surface area and its ability to repel oil. The idea is to pump contaminated water through the mesh to more easily separate oil from the water. Microorganisms have also shown effectiveness in consuming large amounts of oil and oil-eating bacteria like Thalassolituus oleivorans and members of the genus Oleispira have been thriving in the Gulf.

Shell Oil provides surprising developments in renewable energy along with oil and gas tech

Shell maintains a significant investment into research and development within its own corporation. The company’s 2014 fourth quarter earnings report showed that Shell invested $428 million into R&D during that quarter, increasing their expenditures over 2013’s fourth quarter R&D costs of $363 million. During the entire 2014 fiscal year, Shell spent $1.2 billion on R&D. Decades-long investment into natural-gas-to-liquids (GTL) technologies on behalf of Shell has recently resulted in the development of a clear base oil derived from natural gas, a cleaner burning fossil fuel. Shell has also committed millions of dollars in just the past few months on educational initiatives and academic research, such as the $3.5 million it contributed to the University of Houston last October for energy and engineering education programs.