The Deepwater Horizon disaster (April 20, 2010) is the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, releasing close to 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and fouling coastal areas. In previous work that serendipitously came out of studies of mixing polymers and silica nanoparticles using ionic liquids (ILs), we found that the novel and unusual properties of these solvents can be used to separate bitumen from tar or oil sands. But this initial work was limited to test- tube quantities. In this RAPID NSF award, a bench top unit capable of separating kilogram quantities was built (thus demonstrating the feasibility of scale-up) and used to separate contaminated sand that was collected from various beaches on the Gulf of Mexico during August, Because of the time that had elapsed since the spill, the oil “light” fractions had evaporated and the residual “heavy” fractions had polymerized to form tar balls. Nevertheless, a clean separation of tar from sand was easily achieved. Essentially, upon mixing IL with contaminated sand and an organic solvent (to lower the viscosity of the tar), three phases are formed and easily separated by decantation. The lightest phase is a tar/solvent, a middle IL layer is recycled through a closed system, while a bottom clean sand layer is recovered and can be used for beach remediation. The recovered bitumen is free of IL and sand and can be sent to a refinery for processing. The Separation of Hydrocarbons from Contaminated Sand Using Ionic Liquids Paul C. Painter, Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, DMR Tar contaminated sand samples obtained directly from the Gulf of Mexico and also provided by BP before and after extraction of the tar using ionic liquids.

Broader Impacts – The Involvement of Students in Entrepreneurial Activity Paul C. Painter, Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, DMR The broader impacts that have resulted from this work include the application of the technology to other important problems, the teaming of undergraduate and graduate students in the effort and their subsequent involvement in entrepreneurial activity and starting up a small company. One of the concerns with using this technology is that there is no incentive to build a separation plant solely to mitigate the consequences of an oil spill, whose occurrence is unpredictable. The technology has to apply to other problems, such that plants are ready and available in the event of another disaster. In this regard, a particular opportunity may lie in the recovery of oil from drill cuttings, which are brought to the surface by the drilling “muds” which are used to cool and lubricate drill bits and flush cuttings from the well bore. Each horizontal well drilled in shales such as the Marcellus can generate up to 300 tons of oil contaminated cuttings, which are presently landfilled. These drilling muds are oil based and the cuttings retain significant quantities of oil. Preliminary results show that the technology can remove the oil for recycling and generate clean residual minerals. The students initially involved in this work are now also partners in a small company set up to develop the technology. They are learning to be entrepreneurs (with some advice from the Penn State Small Business Development Office) and contact with companies and venture capital people that want to exploit this new process has been established. Oil coated drill cuttings from the Marcellus shale. Cleaned drill cuttings before separation from ionic liquid. The oil forms a layer on the surface because of its lower density and can be decanted and recycled to the drilling mud user.