**1. Introduction**

Water and soil represent important components of the environment, which are strongly affected by contamination with foreign substances. Oil and oil products are important contaminants. Oil substances get into water and soil in various ways, either during the normal use and processing of oil or during accidental spill. Oil contamination is known mainly "thanks" to large-scale oil spills in oil tanker accidents (Exxon Valdez Accident in 1987) or oil platforms (Deepwater Horizon Blowout in 2010), where after the release of several million tons of oil, large and long-term damage to the environment occurred at sea and on the coast, such as also to damage the economy in the given areas [1–3]. There are some of the greatest oil spills in the history in the **Table 1**. The greatest accidental oil spill occurred in the 2010 after blow out at the BP's oil rig Deepwater Horizon. More than 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, which meant enormous damage to the aquatic ecosystems, the coastal ecosystems, the life of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and the life of the entire society in Louisiana. The fishing in the Gulf was damaged, the food industry collapsed, and also the tourism industry completely fell. The economic and social life of Louisiana was so destroyed, and the solution to the accident required such interventions that a special web page was set up to inform people [6, 7].

Despite the fact that the number of such large oil spills is decreasing as a result of the increase in safety during the transportation of oil and oil products, the improvement of technological processes, emergency situations, and gradual releases of oil


#### **Table 1.**

*The greatest oil spills in the history [4, 5].*

substances into the environment occur continuously, so there is always room for the development of methods and techniques for removal of oil contamination [1]. Depending on the amount of leaked substances (the size of the oil spill), the environmental conditions (type of water source—calm or flowing water), and technical possibilities, the main cleaning procedures include oil booms, separators, and separators (skimmers), various types of sorbents, in-situ burning, chemical cleaning (dispersion of petroleum substances), and bioremediation [2].
