Founder Highlight Series: SOR
Sustainable Oil Recovery (SOR) has successfully created an innovative and revolutionary ‘Sucoil (suck oil) Sponge’ which optimises the circular economy and significantly reduces hydrocarbon release into our waterways. The Sucoil Sponge can successfully remove oil from land and water and can be reused over and over again without loss of function.
This new tech has endless possibilities when it comes to oil leaks, catchment and stormwater drain decontamination, and above all, has the potential to protect our marine life from the hazardous poisons that enter their homes daily.
We had the privilege to talk to Co-Founder, Marc Kuhl, and Creative Director, Chris Kiprovski, to learn more about the motivation behind creating the Sucoil Sponge and what they hope to achieve in the sustainability space with their revolutionary tech. And, in particular, the opportunities associated with deploying this device on larger scales.
1.What is the background and motivation behind your organisation, Sustainable Oil Recovery (SOR)?
Whilst everyone can see the tonnes of plastic waste that end up in our oceans, there is a much bigger, broader, unseen issue, with the thousands of millions of litres of hydrocarbon and petrochemical pollutants that float on the surface of our waterways, gradually sinking to the ocean floor. An invisible worldwide problem.
Because of this global threat, Sustainable Oil Recovery (SOR) has developed a sponge technology that rapidly absorbs oil from land and water, without absorbing water. The oil is recycled and the sponge is re-used, reconditioned, refined and repurposed thus creating a circular economy.
2.What prompted the idea to create the ‘Sucoil Sponge’ and how did you find the process of developing this technology?
In 2011, New Zealand experienced their worst environmental maritime disaster when the Rena, a container ship, spilt tonnes of fuel into the Bay of Plenty. Dave Guthrie, our head of R&D, kept track of how the spill impacted the environment, birds and marine life.
Horrified by the irresponsible methods used to “mop up the mess” and how this lengthy process affected the Bay of Plenty residents, Dave decided to find a quicker, environmentally sustainable solution to clean up oil spills. Dave researched and tested numerous different materials, trialling hundreds of combinations, before the Sucoil (suck oil) Sponge was born.
3.Since producing the ‘Sucoil Sponge’ tech, how have you found the uptake and support towards the initiative?
Whilst SOR has experienced extraordinary positive community feedback to our initiative to clean waterways globally, it’s been difficult to obtain financial support to proceed at the rate we’d like, consequently, waterways are continuously becoming more polluted. We have struggled to get backers to understand that the environmental space is more important than the tech space.
That aside, our Marina Solution is currently used in collaboration with Cockatoo Island Marina, Sydney Harbour; and in conjunction with the council and a global tech organisation, SOR’s Stormwater Solution will be implemented in one of Australia’s largest enclosed waterways – a world-first. Watch this space…
4.What do you hope to achieve long-term with the sponge technology?
Once institutions/businesses around the world acknowledge the water issues we face, SOR’s long-term plan is for the sponge technology to be used as part of our Marina, Stormwater, Oceanic, Civil and Mining Solutions.
Facts:
We depend on water for our survival.
It is necessary to store larger quantities of water as the Earth’s population continues growing
Pollution of our lakes, reservoirs and other waterways equates to less available drinking water.
To avoid a worldwide crisis, we need these institutions to recognise that we have found a solution and create actual change before we have run out of time.
5.What has surprised you since working in the climate change space and what has been the greatest challenge?
Two main surprises: 1. Through testing, discovering how incredibly polluted Sydney Harbour is, and 2. Realising that companies/investors are much more focussed on financial gain than environmental impact. This resulted in us identifying the costs of cleaning the environment, and realising that using the Sucoil Sponge in the first place, not only saves our ecosystems but also saves more time and money than current methods.
The greatest challenge to date has been creating a circular economy (finding a use for each part of our product at the end of its life cycle) and finding environmentally sustainable processes for this life-cycle.
Learn more about the work at SUCOIL here: https://www.sucoil.com.au/