In the wake of the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, oil
cleanup is still a major challenge due to the limitations and high
cost of current cleanup practices. The common cleanup techniques
that have been used include in situ burning of oil on water,
mechanical tools (booms and skimmers), use of chemical dispersants, and synthetic sorbents (Table 1). In the cleanup effort in the BP oil spill, BP and the U.S. government relied mainly on oil booms,
mechanical skimmers, and oil dispersantsdthe same tools used
more than 20 years ago to fight the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska
(Dabney, 2010). Also, the initial estimate of the cleanup is $12.5
billion (Weisenthal, 2010) which is about 80% higher than the total
cost of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 (Table 1). The limitations of
these techniques are obvious, ranging from inefficiency at high
water tide, to high cost and environmental harmfulness. Much is
yet to be understood about the effects of current spill cleanup
techniques on the environment and ecosystem.