folks wanted to know what we knew about the chemical dispersants that BP has been spraying over the surface of the slick, and which they are now spraying directly onto the leaks at deep ocean depths. Here's the bad oil!
The chemical agents used as dispersants work by reducing the tension between oil and water, thereby enhancing the natural process of dispersion that takes place when waves mix large numbers of small oil droplets into the water beneath a spill. To be effective, however, they must be used in a hurry -- within 12 to 48 hours after a spill according to the committee that wrote the new report -- before fluctuations in water temperature change the oil's viscosity, possibly turning it into a semi-solid that cannot be dispersed.
Here's the Good Oil Dispersing.... ahhhhh
The important thing to remember about chemical dispersants is that they do not reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment. There is a perception that chemical dispersants are like an industrial soap that somehow cleans the water of oil, and that is fundamentally untrue.
Chemical dispersants change the chemical and physical properties of oil, essentially breaking up oil that is congealed at the surface, and sending oil droplets down into the water column. (By dispersing oil into deeper waters, away from human eyes, dispersants can also have the welcome public relations effect of making the spill appear smaller). The primary objective of chemical dispersants is to avoid sending oil slicks into the nearshore marine environment.
http://www.oilspillsolutions.org/dispersant.htm ck the link!
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