So we're all aware of the oil spill in the gulf of mexico...millions of barrels of oil were spilled out into the ocean, and BP were held responsible (quite rightly in my opinion)..but looking through the news, there are claims that most of the oil has either gone or been recovered....there is a claim that 25% of the oil evaporated and 16% is dispersed naturally...see BBC News - BP pumps cement into damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well
But how does the oil evaporate..doing a quick google search they say it does happen, but is complex and slow....how hot must the temperature have got for the oil to evaporate? or does it not follow normal kinetics???
and out of the 4.9million barrels of oil released, does it seem a bit lame that they could only capture 800,000 barrels???
Depends on crude oil characteristics. Eg Saudi crude is heavy and very high in sulphur. The Gulf crude was light and full of volatile hydrocarbons.
johnep
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