Picture courtesy of wikipedia
In 2010, a massive oil spill devastated the Gulf of Mexico, leaving much of its coast in a seemingly hopeless environmental disaster. As a result, some important questions were raised, such as what the most effective method of removing oil from the water would be. The world really demonstrated its lack of preparedness in light of this incident, as the solutions involved extremely inefficient measures, such as setting fire to the oil on the surface of the ocean. However, this incident sparked a significant interest in researching new methods which separate oil and water as a precaution against future spills.
Recently, one of the most intriguing ideas driving research has been the use of magnetic nanoparticles with an affinity for oil. As a result, researchers at MIT have recently announced their progress on a ferrous nanoparticle which first binds to oil in water and can then be drawn out of the water by way of a magnet, taking the oil out with it. Furthermore, this technique is expected to be a vast improvement on the efficiency of previous techniques used to recover oil, because once the oil has been separated from the water, the nanoparticles can be recovered, which leaves the uncontaminated oil behind for sale or usage. Listen to MIT researchers Shahriar Khushrushahi and Markus Zahn explain their project here: 
The concept is there, but the question of how practical such a method will be when dealing with vast bodies of water is still uncertain. Also, the nanoparticles themselves could be seen as an environmental contaminant, so recovery of the oil and then recollection of the particles should probably be done in a controlled manner. Hopefully some resolutions to all the issues surrounding this idea come to fruition soon, because even British Columbia could stand to benefit from the security this method of cleanup might offer, in light of the recently proposed pipeline.
Cameron Tough
