Various cleanup strategies are used when an oil spill occurs in
marine environments ranging from direct burning, use of chemical
dispersants, mechanical skimmers, use of booms and absorbents.
During the catastrophic Macondo oil spill incident in the Gulf of
Mexico, more than 4.7 million barrels of crude oil were spilled into
the Gulf. In the cleanup operation, more than 700 km of booms
were deployed, skimmers were used to recover over 27 million
gallons of oily water and more than 1.5 million gallons of
dispersants were used in the first 10 weeks of the spill [4]. Most
of these methods are usually expensive and hence there is a
requirement to consider other potential alternatives. The use of
sorbents is an attractive alternative due to its simplicity and low
cost