Oil spill, triggering a donation frenzy among Peruvians, can 1 kilogram of hair really suck 8 kilograms of oil?
On January 23, 2022, this spectacle appeared in the streets of Lima, the capital of Peru, with hordes of residents lining up to cut their hair, and the cut hair was not sold privately, but was donated to the state to "control the oil disaster".
The staff even arranged these hairs in the shape of sausages in the shape of "oil absorption fences" and placed them on the surface of the sea, so why do Peruvians behave so strangely? Can human hair really be harnessed to control oil spills?
The reason why Peruvians have this decision is also a helpless move.
In early 2022, the Tonga volcano erupted, triggering a violent tsunami in the surrounding area, which brought deep disaster to Peru.
More than 6,000 barrels of crude oil were dumped directly into the waters near Peru, where nearly 174 hectares were contaminated by the waves.
In such a large accident, the Repsol Oil Company responsible for the handover is naturally to blame, not only to be fined heavily, but even to be prosecuted internationally.
But more important than accountability is the aftermath, and how to recover the spilled oil as soon as possible has become the biggest headache for Peruvian officials.
Although the Peruvian side has now deployed more than 8,000 feet of oil fences there, while sending a cleaning team of up to 840 people. But it will take at least 3 to 4 weeks to solve the oil spill, which is expected to be completed by the end of February, which can give residents of Peru's coastal zone a headache.
Due to the oil spill, which has caused a large number of beaches to be polluted, and these beaches are an important part of the tourism industry in the coastal areas, this oil pollution is bound to cause a heavy blow to the tourism industry in the relevant areas.
In addition, fishermen who are more dependent on marine economic activities have also encountered trouble, large areas of the ocean have been polluted, directly leading to the violent death of many marine organisms, the fish poisoned on the black sea can be seen everywhere, fishermen have lost their jobs to survive, and what is more, many coastal residents have shown different symptoms of poisoning.
In order to restore normal life as soon as possible, Peruvian residents spontaneously went to the streets to donate their hair to make more oil-absorbing fences to solve the oil spill problem.
So the question is, can hair really be used to absorb oil? The answer is yes. Hair not only absorbs oil, but is also an excellent oil absorbent material, 1 kg of hair can absorb about 8 kg of oil!
The reason why seemingly ordinary hair has such a strong ability to absorb oil is mainly because it has two characteristics: "special structure" and "special composition".
Smooth hair is actually very mottled under the microscope, not only with a lot of cracks and holes, but also a large number of "fold-type gaps", which directly contribute to its great viscosity and can absorb as much oil as possible.
As for the composition of the hair, it is even more special, hair composed of keratin, which is very similar in polarity to oil composed of various alkanes.
According to the principle of similar compatibility, substances with similar polarity are easily adsorbed together, so hair has a strong adhesion to oil, according to scientific research, a kilogram of hair can absorb 8 kilograms of oil is not nonsense.
Of course, a kilogram of hair may not seem like much, but from the perspective of human hair growth of 50 grams per year, a person's hair growth takes at least 20 years to reach the standard. It can be seen that using hair to adsorb oil can only be used as an emergency measure, not as a long-term strategy.
In fact, Peru was not the originator of the whimsical idea of using hair to absorb oil.
As early as 1989, the Americans used this method, when an oil tanker hit a reef near Alaska, and more than 11 million gallons of oil were dumped into the sea, and seabirds, seals and other marine organisms were stained with a lot of oil.
People saw that animal fur can adsorb oil, so they tried to use human hair to do experiments, the experimental results were unexpected, human hair has a super ability to absorb oil, and because of this, in an emergency, the method of adsorbing oil with hair has been passed down.
Fortunately, Peru's crude oil leak this time is only about 6,000 barrels, the cumulative amount is not more than 850 tons, about 2 million people shaved their hair can solve the problem, for Peru, which has a population of 33 million, it is still within the scope of treatment. But if you add zero after the amount of crude oil spilled, it will be troublesome, and Peru will probably be full of shiny bald heads. It can be seen that protecting the environment and taking preventive measures in advance is far more important and easy than post-incident governance.
Some people may be confused, since animal fur has the same effect, why use human hair?
The reason is very simple, although in principle, as long as the fiber can adsorb crude oil, not only animal fur, even wheat stalks, straw, etc. can play an effect, but the gap in this adsorption capacity can be too large, not to mention the hair is not wet with oil, floating on the sea surface is easy to handle, hair is similar to the original ingredients, and post-recovery is also simple, just uphold a "sustainable development" concept, hair This renewable resource is also much more cost-effective than animal fur.
Although many Peruvian residents have donated their beautiful hair, they are not bothered by this, but are happy to solve the problems of the government, and I believe that with the joint efforts of the Peruvian government and residents, the oil spill problem can be solved quickly and properly.