Oil-eating AEROS robots will clean up the oil spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than thought, thus for the task of cleaning the mess-up and to avoid such disasters in the future, Global Response Group has proposed idea for automated robots. Dubbed Airborne Robotic Oil Spill Recovery System (AEROS), the robots will be good to clean oil spills, as big as this one in few days. AEROS – a fleet of airplane-deployed robots which use centrifuge-like oil and water separators to collect oil for refining.

global response group aeros oil spill cleaning sys

global response group aeros oil spill cleaning sys

The robots and inflatable booms are dropped off the airplanes near the spill site where guided by a GPS collect the oily water within. The liquid’s then spun and 99 percent pure water, oil less is dispensed out. The separated oil collected is hoarded in the bladders, which can later be removed by crew members to recycle. It’s supposed that each AEROS robot can clean up to 3000 gallons of oil per minute, which means a fleet of such dedicated robots can clean up a large spill area in a matter of days.

global response group aeros oil spill cleaning sys

Via: PopSci/EcoFriend