HeiQ and its partners TWE and BST have developed an oil-absorbing, water-repelling, nonwoven fabric for oil relief efforts called Oilguard. The product is intended for beach protection against oil spills and is applied to the shoreline. The Oilguard fabric is up to 6 yards wide and several hundred yards long and uses selective absorption technologies. This allows for the fabric to absorb crude oil yet repelling the seawater.
Responsible for Oilguard is a small group of leading European textile companies. When the oil spill disaster struck the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the group decided to leverage on HeiQ‘s extensive know-how of water repellency effects. Utilising technology from Barrier by HeiQ to develop a product which would be able to absorb oil, but repel water, thanks to the textile effects know-how of HeiQ, BST, Beyond Surface Technologies and the nonwoven expertise and production capacity of the German non-woven producing company TWE, Oilguard was developed within weeks.
