Texas Farm bureau field editor Matt Felder explains how a cotton-based fiber product, designed by Texas Tech associate professor Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar, with the Institute of Environmental and Human Health, offers an effective solution to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Fibertect is a decontamination wipe that some scientists claim is the best answer to the massive clean-up job in the Gulf of Mexico, Felder writes.
Fibertect contains a fibrous activated carbon center sandwiched between layers made from raw cotton. The waxes in the cotton fiber allow it to repel sea water and absorb oil, while the center layer holds volatile compounds such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or blistering agents such as mustard vapors, and other toxic chemicals.
He quotes Ramkumar: "You need to have material that can not only suck up the oil—there are so many technologies available just to suck up the oil—but you need to also have the technology that will hold the obnoxious or toxic vapors which are very volatile.”
See article with photos at TEXAS FARM BUREAU website at: http://www.txfb.org/newsmanager/templates/TexasAg.aspx?articleid=6918&zoneid=129