Oil industry clean-up 'to benefit from flyash'

The efforts to clean up the coast in the Gulf of Mexico could benefit as new technology is put at the disposal of the oil industry in the area.

Research conducted at the University of Central Florida has looked at ways to use flyash to absorb spilled oil from the coastline.

Flyash - itself a waste material - has shown an ability to clump together oil on beaches, creating an oily mass.

This can be retrieved using mesh packaging materials to produce a combustible fuel source that allows the oil to be used in energy generation.

Once burned, the flyash can be reused - making the process sustainable and retrieving the oil in a way that allows it still to be used.

The research was assisted by a grant from the National Science Foundation, which activated its Rapid Response Research mechanism to provide quick funding to projects which could help to recover the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico following the spill.