Removing emulsified oil droplets in oil sands process-affected water and oil spills is challenging due to their large surface area to volume ratios. As a result, traditional cleaning methods cannot be used to remove oil using buoyancy. Therefore, cost effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly oil-water separation and collection systems need to be developed to treat these contaminated waters. These systems will require hydrophobic and oleophilic collecting materials. Synthetic polymer foams exhibit these properties and are promising for this application. This paper investigates the capability of acoustic polystyrene polyurethane foam as a collector material for treating oil-contaminated water. The diffusion properties of the foam are required to determine flow mechanisms and design parameters of a water treatment system. These properties were experimentally determined for the removal of dispersed and emulsified hydrocarbon droplets from water over three temperatures and concentrations using gravimetric analysis. The overall absorption was observed to increase with concentration and temperatures due to improved transport and larger oil availability. The absorption was observed to act in two stages, therefore experimental data was fit with non-Fickian absorption diffusion models: sequential dual Fickian (SDF) and parallel dual Fickian (PDF). The diffusion coefficients for both SDF and PDF were found to be independent of temperature and concentration. In the SDF model, the initial diffusion coefficient was large due to rapid surface wetting and van der Waals attractive forces. The second diffusion coefficient was smaller due to the slow wetting of the water in the hydrophobic pores. Based on the determined diffusion properties, the synthetic acoustic foam is a promising collector material in an oil-water separation and collection system.