The makers of a super-absorbent polymer bead say their product could have cleaned up the BP p.l.c. Deepwater Horizon spill far more efficiently than and at a fraction of the cost of what was ultimately used, and while the beads have been sold in China, Japan, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom, they are having trouble getting their foot in the door in North America. "Here's the analogy we use," Bruno Iafrate, Imbibitive Technologies Inc.'s vice-president of operations and chief financial officer, tells New Technology Magazine. "Deepwater Horizon [cleanup] cost billions and captured three per cent of the oil spill. It cost $3,700 per gallon to clean up that spill. One gallon of oil can be picked up using our product with one pound of beads—about $13.50 on average."
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