Experiment to Clean Up an Oil Spill

Have you ever wondered how difficult it can be to clean up an oil spill? This experiment will show:

• how oil reacts with fresh water and ocean water;
• how an oil spill can affect wildlife; and
• the different items used to clean up spills.

All of the tools you will need are environmentally friendly and easy to find. See your science teacher if you have any questions.

 

You need:

• 2 clear glass baking dishes or bowls
• tap water
• blue food colouring
• vegetable oil
• pure cocoa powder
• table salt
• a tablespoon
• a teaspoon
• paddle-pop sticks
• a coffee mug
• sorbents (paper towel, cotton balls, rag, string, nylon pot scrubber, sponge, styrofoam cup, garden peat moss)
• liquid dishwashing detergent
• tweezers or tongs
• feathers

 

STEP 1:  Prepare the fresh (tap) water

• Fill glass dish/bowl with cold tap water within 1 cm of the top.
• Add 5-6 drops of food colouring.
• Mix colouring and water with a paddle-pop stick.
• Let solution settle.

 

STEP 2:  Simulate crude oil

• Place 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the coffee mug.
• Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
• Mix cocoa powder and vegetable oil thoroughly with a paddle-pop stick.

 

STEP 3:  Contaminate the water

• Very slowly pour the simulated crude oil from a height of 1cm onto the water dish/bowl. If you pour the oil too quickly, the experiment won't work.

Q1:  What happened to the simulated crude oil when you poured it onto the water? Did it sink? Float? Mix in?

• Wait 3 minutes.

Do you want to change your answer to Q1?

 

STEP 4:  Determine how oil affects feathers

• Dip a feather into the oil-contaminated water.

Q2:  What happens when a feather gets oil on it?
Q3:  How might an oiled feather affect a bird?

 

STEP 5:  Test the sorbents

• Place one of the sorbent samples into the centre of the contaminated water.

Q4:  How much oil did the sorbent clean up? How quickly?
Q5:  Does the sorbent pick up water too? If so, how can you tell?
Q6:  Does the sorbent sink or float?
Q7:  What is the condition of the contaminated sorbent?

• Remove sorbent with tweezers or tongs.
• Repeat Step 5 with the remaining sorbent samples.

Q8:  How would you pick up the oil-contaminated sorbents in a "real" oil spill?
Q9:  How would you dispose of the oil-contaminated sorbents in a “real” oil spill?
Q10:  Of the sorbents you tested, which one worked the fastest? The best?
Q11:  What other materials could you use as sorbents?

 

STEP 6:  Prepare the ocean (salty) water

• In the second dish/bowl, repeat Step 1.
• Add 1 teaspoon of salt and mix well.
• Let the solution settle.
• Repeat Step 2, Step 3, Step 4 and Step 5.

Q12:  Are the results of the experiment different when you use fresh water instead of ocean water?

 

STEP 7:  Test the reaction of detergent

In a “real” oil spill clean up, liquids can be applied to the oil to help clean up the spill.  These are called dispersants.  Dishwashing detergent can be used to simulate this.

• Add 1 squirt of dishwashing detergent to each of the oil-contaminated fresh and ocean water dishes.

Q13:  What happened when the detergent was added?
Q14:  How clean is the water in each of the dishes?

 

Source:  Minister of Supply & Services Canada, 1994