Can human hair be used to clean oil spills?

A recent study was conducted in Australia confirmed, human hair can be used to clean up the oil spill disaster.

Although this may sound a bit strange, in fact, we can use an inexpensive and natural product like hair to clean up oil, instead of expensive synthetic products to handle oil spills. The current.

Disaster of oil spill on the sea.

According to ScienceAlert, Rebecca Pagnucco, a student who has completed a master's degree program at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia (UTS) recently came up with the idea of using hair to clean up the spill .

Pagnucco said: "There are many different materials used to clean up oil . many of them are synthetic materials, especially polypropylene and other polymer resins. Recent media has paid close attention. to the problem of polluting plastic waste at sea and whether the oil absorbers are more polluting rather than trying to clean up the oil ".

Long hair when cut off will be of considerable value when used as a wig. However, short curls when cut or shaved will often be discarded or taken to landfills. This is really wasteful if considering their benefits.

They can hair to prevent pollution and oil spills thanks to the absorbing properties of the hair.

Pagnucco and her supervisor at UTS, Megan Phillips believe, they can hair to fight pollution and oil spills thanks to the absorbing properties of the hair.

"Hair is a natural detergent," she says. "There is evidence that hair can absorb 3-9 times more oil than their weight. Your hair is oily and they become more oily - muscle oil." The version is also attached to hair fibers, along with a similar method, hair can stick to other oils, such as crude oil.

Previously, people used natural fibers such as cotton, wool to handle oil spills and clean up stains. Even so, the results are not really effective and economical.

The curls are tied in bags to handle the spill.

In terms of efficiency, cotton and wool can absorb oil well but they have high value in the production of textiles and clothing. And this will be really "uneconomical" at all, because they are quite wasteful.

She said that hair can be reused many times to handle oil spills because we can clean and reuse easily. There are only a few studies that use hair as an oil cleaning tool, but these studies often affect the hair before it is done.

Young students share, she is hoping the research will be achieved at the same time with two goals, including oil spill cleanup and waste reduction.

Pagnucco's research has not yet been published in any scientific journal, but in terms of the feasibility of the study when applied outside of life, this may be one of the optimal remediation measures, The cheapest and most effective.