| MadSci Network: Environment & Ecology |
Hello Vanessa. When you use liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream and frozen yogurt, it's a relatively small volume. In other words, I don't need a lot of liquid nitrogen vs the ice cream. By contrast, the amount of spilled oil is very large. It's not practical to ship in that much liquid nitrogen. Also, considering the temperature of the spill area, your liquid nitrogen would "evaporate" before it ever got a chance to freeze anything. The other thing to keep in mind is that the nitrogen gas that forms will displace the oxygen that's present in the air, making it hazardous to apply near air-breathing critters or people.
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