Cotton effective in cleaning up oil spills
May 17, 2013
Process Engineering- Scientists report that each pound of raw cotton may be able to sop up more than 30 pounds of crude oil. Seshadri Ramkumar and colleagues note that a particular need exists for oil-spill sorbents that are abundantly available at relatively low cost, sustainable and biodegradable. There have been extensive studies on fibers such as barley straw, kapok and wool — but big gaps in knowledge about their basic crude oil-uptake mechanisms and no data on unprocessed raw cotton.
tags : Texas Tech in the News