Abstract
Oil spills inflict serious pollution on the environment. Numerous environmental rules and regulations have been made to improve oil spill response and cleanup performance. However, current oil spill control technologies have failed to ensure environmental safety and ecosystem integrity. Cleanup efforts often lead to more environmental hazards in one way or the other causing public outcry for alternate energy sources. Since hydrocarbon driven energy demand is expected to rise in the foreseeable future, it becomes imperative to work towards sustainable oil spill control operations. This article reviews the state-of-the-art oil spill control techniques, its chemicals, and their advantages and disadvantages. It also reviews short and long term implications of current cleanup practices and provides insight, guidelines, and conditions for a sustainable oil spill control technology. A focus on natural sorbent is emphasized.