When applied to a slick of oil they are meant to break it up into tiny droplets which disperse widely and are broken down by bacteria.

当把分散剂喷洒在光滑的石油上时，它们会促进原油的分解，形成能广泛分散的微小球状物，能被细菌分解。

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BP is spending millions of dollars a day to contain the oil with booms, using chemicals to disperse and break it up, and burning some oil on the ocean surface.

BP公司每天花费数百万美元用围油栏收集石油，使用化学分散剂分解石油，并燃烧海洋表面的一部分石油。

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The store never opened, and by midmorning authorities wielding megaphones roped off the store and told the crowd of hundreds to disperse to break up the tense scene.

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But it concludes that the oil is continuing to break up and disperse underneath the surface, making the emergency of a major oxygen-poor dead zone unlikely.

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