Wooster company invents process that could play a major role in gulf oil spill cleanup

WOOSTER, Ohio - Dr. Paul Edmiston is a College of  Wooster professor who made what could be a very important discovery back in 2005. Using federal grant money, Dr. Edmiston was working on a polymer that would be used to detect explosives, thus improving airport security.

Dr. Edmiston never expected his efforts to lead him to something else that could now play a key roll in helping to clean up the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Edmiston calls his discovery Osorb. Osorb is a white powdered silicon polymer that can safely remove contaminents, like oil, from water in a matter of minutes. Osorb is used in connection with a water purification system. Osorb can soak-up 8 times its weight in oil, allowing water to easily be filtered out. The oil can then be separated from the Osorb compound, allowing Osorb to be used again, once it returns to a white powder.

Because of his discovery, Dr. Edmiston founded ABS Materials in 2008, with offices in Wooster, Ohio and in Houston, Texas. Dr. Edmiston is hoping the federal government will approve the testing of Osorb in the gulf in the coming weeks.

If the Osorb process is successful, ABS Materials could hire dozens of additional Ohio employees.   A process, Crain's Magazine reported last week, is sure to make ABS Materials one of the most successful Ohio companies over the next 30 years.

If you would like to know more about this exciting process, log on to absmaterials.com .