A review of modern technologies and best practices for oil spill containment and response

Oil spillage is one of the most catastrophic environmental disasters with enormous risks to marine ecosystems, coastal economies and human health. Efficient containment and response technologies are the key to minimizing the effects of such disasters. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art oil spill containment and response technologies from mechanical, chemical, to biological methods. Conventional technologies such as booms, skimmers, and dispersants are compared to next-generation technologies such as nanotechnology-based sorbents, magnetic separation technologies, and artificial intelligence-based spill monitoring. Best practices for incident management, regulatory policy, and public outreach are also addressed. Case studies of the largest oil spills such as Deepwater Horizon in 2010, Exxon Valdez in 1989 and Prestige in 2002 are utilized to construct insight about the strengths and weaknesses of response mechanisms implemented. Although technological advancement has enhanced oil spill response, the challenges of high cost of response, gap in enforcement of regulations, and environmental risk of chemical dispersants remain unabated. This review promotes the development of green remediation technologies, in situ real-time spill detection technologies, and international policy coordination to achieve more effective and sustainable oil spill response systems.