A Research team from the University of Basrah, College of Science, Department of Chemistry published a patent entitled " Oil spill treatment with flexible polyurethane foam grafted with a hydrophobic cross-linked monomer". 

This work focused on grafting a commercial flexible polyurethane surface with a new crosslinked monomer to improve its oleophilic and hydrophobic properties for oil spill treatment and cleaning. FTIR was used to characterize the flexible polyurethane surface before and after the grafting process. Crude oil and diesel fuel were used in the experiments as oil spill models, and the absorption properties of ungrafted and grafted polyurethane cubes for water, crude oil, and diesel fuel, as well as for crude oil-water and diesel fuel-water systems, were examined and compared. It was discovered that the grafted polyurethane cubes were very efficient with the newly prepared monomer to treat and clean oil spills successfully.