sand, sawdust, pumice
sawdust and cat litter
I don't know. During the clean up operations, there was many suggestions of mopping up oil using sponges, mats made of hair, and maybe sawdust. Any absorbing material should be able to remove some oil from water. Small spills of oil or other pollutants in calm water, may be more effectively cleaned up using these mats. Material or mats that absorbs oil must then be picked up and creates a very large disposal problem. Skimmers seemed to work best.
hydroweed
cotton wool
hydroweed
IT doesn't they filter oil Through their small holes
Water seems to absorb the least oil, as seen by the many recent oil spills.
No. Sawdust is a mixture.
Sawdust is matter.
ANSWER:Believe it or not, human hair absorbs more oil than any other found material. It is used in webbing mesh used for tanker oil spills. The problem with this application is human hair in the quantities needed are limited. For smaller, non-industrial purposes, oil absorbing granules such as cat litter or other mineral or clay based absorbents are used.
Pour 5W30 motor oil on it, and then cover it in sawdust, leave it overnight, then blowdry it. Finally, vacuum it up and dry with a papertowel. Voila!