The new sorbent material absorbs and processes oil at the same time. Consisting of a natural mineral and polymeric component it doesn`t hurt environment. This kind of sorbent can be used for spills of oil on land and in water. Furthermore to clean up one ton of oil about 60-65 km are used. Ekaterina Glazacheva and Ksenia Volkova, PhD students of Chair of IT in the Fuel and Energy Industry, developed the innovative material under the leadership of Maya Uspenskaya, head of this chair.

“Russia is an oil processing country. That is why oil disaster is up to date problem. Thus one of our activities is to develop special materials absorbing a large amount of oil. A lot of sorbent types being used nowadays are not effective. We tried to join advantages of two developed ones. We covered a polymeric matrix with microorganisms that process oil products,” said Maya Uspenskaya. “Testing it in laboratory, we obtained good results. Thus we are going to provide field experiments.”

According to Ms. Uspenskaya, the main advantage of oil sorbent is that microorganisms process oil products. Usually sorbet absorbs oil remaining on the surface of the water or on the ground.

“It is the second competition organized by St. Petersburg Committee on Science and Higher Education, in which ITMO University developers took part winning the first prize. Previously our sorbent developed for agricultural purposes placed 1st,” noted the head of the chair of IT in the Fuel and Energy Industry. “Last year a representative of the Committee underlined that ITMO University researchers succeeded in those field that is not typical of this university. It means that ITMO University is more than IT and photonics. Our scientists also develop other research lines such as medicine, biology and chemistry.”

An awarding ceremony took place on October, 7 as a part of “VIII St. Petersburg International Innovative Forum.” “Butterfly” robot developed by ITMO University small enterprise “Educational Robotics,” was also among the best innovative projects.

Aleksander Pushkash

News portal editorial office