Finding a Non-Petroleum Based Soap to Help Animals Affected by Oil Spills
BACKGROUND
Oil spills have become a catastrophic environmental
event in recent years. They have destroyed ecosystems
and lives. If we cannot find an effective way to lessen
the effects of the spills and help the animals affected,
the results could affect our everyday lives. Figuring
out why oil spills are a huge problem is important in
understanding how to prevent them. There have been
many studies on figuring out how to clean up oil from
spills, but none of them have been widely accepted.
From conducting these experiments, scientists have
found that some household items can even be used to
soak up or break down oil. Further research could be
the key to finding out if there is a more accessible,
effective cleanser for cleaning up oil spills. Last year,
the experiment was conducted using DAWN dish soap
and comparing its effectiveness to two soaps that were
hand-made. This year, it will focus on how well
different soaps from a local store clean oil off fur and
feathers. This will help determine whether there is an
effective way to help animals that have been impacted
by oil spills.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
• Hypothesis: The soaps with the gentler
ingredient will be less effective
• Independent Variable: Cleanser being used
• Dependent Variable: How clean the
fur/feathers get
• Control: Water is the control group
• For this experiment, 4x4 fake fur squares and
five white feathers for were used for each
soap in each trial. Soap 1 was just water for
the control group, soap 2 was DAWN dish
soap, soap 3 was AJAX, and soap 4 was
Fabuloso. The goal was to compare how
different the types of cleansers performed.
The process was repeated twice in order to
maximize the results.
MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS
After the first trial, I concluded that Fabuloso removed
Materials
more oil off the fur and DAWN removed more oil off the
• white feathers
feathers. The second trial showed that Fabuloso was more
• fake fur
effective than any other cleansers in cleaning the samples.
• dish soaps
•
My hypothesis was partially correct; The gentler soaps
hand soaps
were less effective, and the harsher cleansers showed
• motor fuel
better results. I was surprised that Fabuloso was so good
• water
at cleaning animal material since it’s not advertised as
• bowls/cups
anything like that. DAWN was predicted to be a good
Method(s) cleanser since they market themselves as eco-friendly. I
1. Submerge the fur/feathers in a bowl of equal parts oil and water was also surprised that AJAX wasn’t an effective cleaner
2. Leave in an open area for 24 hours because I assumed that because of the common
3. Use each soap to clean each batch of feathers/fur ingredients in DAWN and AJAX, they would have
4. Let dry for 24 hours in a well-ventilated area similar results. My results are more accurate than last
5. Assess damage and effectiveness year because I used more numerical data. Last year I just
6. Compare the before and after assumed how much oil was removed instead of
Experimental Set Up measuring it. It’s also more practical this year since I am
testing soaps that already exist in stores instead of making
my own. Using this type of data additionally made the
process go much faster.
CONCLUSIONS
I concluded from my testing that neither of the dish
soaps were as effective as Fabuloso which is an all-
purpose surface cleaner. Unfortunately, this
cleanser was the most damaging to the samples,
and would not be a good candidate for being used
in real life. The second most effective was DAWN
which cleaned more off the feathers than the fur.
This contradicted my original beliefs.
Mass of samples during procedure (Trial 1) Mass of samples during procedure (Trial 2) REFERENCES
Chow, D. (2021, October 6). How we clean oil spills hasn't changed in decades.
     These scientists want to change that. NBC News. Retrieved November 23,
     2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/
     clean-oil-spills-hasnt-changed-decades-scientists-want-change-rcna2649
Freedman, D. H. (2012). Brave new soaps. Discover, 33(5), 24–25.
Gandel, S. (2010). Cleaning Up on the Spill. TIME Magazine, 176(3), 24–27
 
Hedges, S. J. (1993). The cost of cleaning up. U.S. News & World Report, 115(9), 26.
Mole, B. (2015). An Oil Spill’s Aftermath. Science News, 187(8), 22-26
Pictures of samples during procedure (Trial 1) Pictures of samples during procedure (Trial 2) Zipp, Y. (1996, January 26). Scrubbing up after Rhode Island’s worst oil spill.
Christian Science Monitor, 88(42), 12.