When Recoverit is attached to oil it becomes an easily handled glutinous gel adsorbing up to 25 times its own weight of which less than 0.1% will be water.

One kilo of Recoverit can pick up 100 to 600 litres of oil through re-use. Recoverit can be used on water, sand, soil and in the atmosphere.

Practical tests have shown that up to 10 tons of soil can be processed per hour with current equipment. In addition to oil it will also pick up VOC's, H2so4 and H2S Once the hydrocarbon has been captured by Recoverit, hazardous fumes are also eliminated and, as a product, it is non flammable. So for fuel spill clean ups the risks of ignition are greatly reduced.

Traditionally fuel would be either contained by booms and barriers or absorbed into pads, which will not prevent inflammable fumes spreading.

Completely reusable and biodegradable this new material can be used in virtually any oil spill or pollution situation. It will recover the pollutant and can then be separated from the pollutant and re-used. Recovered oil can be processed into usable products, such as biodiesel.

The company will support all applications in Europe until dedicated agents are found.

The marine and coastal sector will include oil spill response and clean up, ship and boat bilge water cleaning, land remediation at marine sites such as marinas and docks, harbour authorities and inland waterways.

H4 says it aims to have a similar set up to that in use in Australia where socks of Recoverit can be used by marina berth holders to adsorb oil from bilges and then placed in a dirty bin on site.

Periodically a contractor or on site facility will separate the oil from the socks and the socks can then be left in a clean bin for re-use.

Recoverit was awarded first in the Marine Equipment category in the Innovation Showcase.

H4 Marine T: 01822 852466 W: H4marine. com