eMop
Natural Science, LLC and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), announced an exclusive field-of-use license agreement that grants Natural Science rights to Fermilab’s electromagnetic boom and environmental cleanup technologies for use in conjunction with magnetizable oil.
Through this agreement, Natural Science can utilize and develop electromagnetic oil recovery boom technologies across a broad range of applications, including on-and-off-shore oil remediation and control management systems as well as produced water hydrocarbon remediation. Through this exclusive field-of-use agreement, Natural Science customers will now have access to innovative technology that is environmentally safe, outstrips current solutions in terms of efficiency, and leverages aspects of the problem itself.
The electromagnetic mop system rests on the fact that micron sized magnetite particles will mix with oil more readily than water when these filings are spread on an oil-water mixture. The particles form a unique and preferential bond with the oil due to a combination of forces, forming a loose colloidal suspension. The filings are magnetic, so they can be moved by a typical magnet. This allows one to use magnetic fields to manipulate, trap, and remove the oil in an environmentally safe manner with high efficiency. Natural Science is applying the licensed technology to an electromagnetic boom system that will replace the standard (and inefficient) passive boom and skimmer systems used today.
“Extracting crude oil from water has always been a difficult and inefficient process, despite the fact that the two liquids don’t readily mix,” said John Nelson of Natural Science. “Our system can extract over ninety percent of the oil from the surrounding water, which represents a substantial gain over traditional systems.”
“This license agreement, with one of the most recognized laboratories in the world, represents our commitment to finding the best technologies and delivering the best solutions to our customers,” said David Cathey of Natural Science. “Given the nature of our product, we feel our technology will quickly become an industry standard for oil spill remediation.”
TEDxNaperville 2015 Video Available: http://www.tedxnaperville.com/talks/arden-warner/