I heard this in a WUWM news story and had to see the YouTube video. Janesville, Wisconsin textile manufacturer Monterey Mills makes a dense wool fabric that its president, Daniel Sinykin, is convinced could absorb enough of BP’s Gulf oil spill to save 20 miles of beachfront per day.
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You may recall that salons and pet groomers had been donating hair to MatterOfTrust.org for a similar oil removal innovation which BP and the Coast Guard decided not to use. Sinykin believes that his super-dense “wool is an even better absorber of oil,” and he demonstrates this using a small swimming pool and a large wool pad.
The wool does remove oil from the water very clearly.
I have to wonder, though, how many tons of oily wool pads would be left after a few days soaking up the oil we see continuously gushing from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In the video, a pad about 3 feet in diameter is used to soak up a gallon of oil. Round that to 7 square feet and it would take 17.5 million square feet to absorb the 2.5 million gallons of oil estimated by the U.S. government to be spewing from the spill each day. That’s .672 square miles of oily wool pad fabric.
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I have no idea how many sheep that would take.
You can follow Monterey Mills on Twitter: MMmontereymills
My dad David Hornby showed me this video when it was created, while the oil in the Gulf was still not under control, and I couldn’t believe that BP didn’t jump all over this chance to save, and control the spill. Major Props to you guys!