Mudge on smudge

A project using vegetable oil to clear oil pollution from beaches has won a Pounds 25,000 environmental award from Enterprise Oil and Heriot-Watt University.

Stephen Mudge, of the school of ocean sciences at the University of Wales Bangor, is leading research into a solvent basedon vegetable oils that is proving more effective and less toxic than other clean-up methods.

A lot of oil from a spillvaporises before reaching beaches leaving a sticky tar.The solvent turns the tar intoa liquid which can be washedor drained off.