A Year-10 student in the US has won an award for developing a method to clean up marine oil spills.

Sahil Veeramoney’s aim was to develop an efficient clean-up process that could be used in the US and all over the world.

He researched different clean-up methods after studying the environmental impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – which killed 10 people and spewed millions of barrels of oil.

Veeramoney focused on a process which helps separate the oil and the results in a laboratory setting showed “significant improvement in efficiency over current oil spill remediation methods”, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.

It honoured the student with the President’s Environmental Youth Award.

EPA Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran said: “Sahil’s research to protect water resources from oil spills is important for the Northwest where rivers, lakes and seas are a cornerstone of our ecosystems.

“It’s exciting to see students linking current events and science to find solutions for our most pressing environmental issues.”