Ever heard that the human hair could be a very effective material to clean up an oil spill? In Madison, Alabama, a hairdresser named Philip McCrory originated the hair-as-an-oil-adsorbent concept in 1989. McCrory experimented with human hair to soak up a mock oil spill in his son's plastic pool. In just a few minutes, the water was clean.
Excited with his findings, McCrory approached NASA scientists in Alabama. The researchers obliged and experimented with an oil filter made up of human hair. They confirmed the findings of McCrory. Human hair effectively reduced the concentration of oil to just 17 parts per million or two drops of oil per 55 million gallons.
The discovery was applied to the Exxon Valdez oil spill which achieved great results. Human hair sponges of about 1.4 million pounds have soaked up and estimated 11 million gallons of oil.>>Read more...
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