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Dispersants in Deepwater Horizon

November 12, 2017

During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon crisis, officials made the unprecedented and controversial decision to inject more than 700,000 gallons of chemical dispersant over 67 days immediately above the severed wellhead at the seafloor. In a new study, a team of scientists reported that by breaking up petroleum into smaller droplets that dissolved faster, the dispersants decreased the amounts of volatile toxic compounds, such as toluene and benzene, that rose to the surface and outgassed into the air, thus reducing the health risks posed to emergency responders. (Illustration by Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)