Welcome to the OttiMat™ Website
The OttiMat™ is an innovative product that uses recycled human hair to repair and prevent the environmental damage caused by oil spills. Comprised of 99% recycled human hair and 1% Polypropylene Skrim, OttiMat adsorbs (holds on to) oil. OttiMat™ patented technology is environmentally friendly, non-hazardous and all natural.
The Idea: The Ottimat was invented by Phil McCory, a hair stylist in Huntsville, Alabama. While watching television coverage of the 1989 Valdez oil spill, McCory noticed the difficulty volunteers were having cleaning the fur of otters.
McCory thought, “ if animal fur can trap and hold spilled oil, why can’t human hair?”
In a home experiment, McCory stuffed 5 pounds of hair he'd cut into a pair of his wife's pantyhose. He tied the ankles of the nylons together to form a ring shaped collection bundle. Then, filling his son's baby pool with water, he poured a gallon of used motor oil in the pool and then dunked the pantyhose. Two minutes later he pulled out the nylons and noticed the water was crystal clear. Not a trace of oil was left in the water, said McCory.
The Environmental Angle: In the US alone, 60 million pounds of human hair are disposed of in landfills each year. The OttiMat avoids the use of toxic oil cleaners in our water sources by using hair, non-decomposing materials. Human hair is easily available, low cost and hence in real sense, cost effective.
"When I conducted my research, I realized that I had found a commercial use for what was, at present, a waste product. Millions of pounds of human hair is cut every day and tossed into landfills or dumped into oceans. Hair does not degrade well. In fact, some samples have been found are thousands of years old. Using it for bioremediation of oil spills would put it to work while simultaneously reducing the amount of waste in our landfills - a real win-win situation. Also, the oil saturated bundles can be burned as fuel and energy value of the petroleum they contain can be recovered", said McCory, Inventor.
The NASA Testing: NASA conducted a prototype experiment that treated a partially filled 55-gallon drum of oil-water mixture from an actual fuel oil spill. The contaminated oil-water mixture was rapidly poured through a human hair filter inside a 55-gallon drum and drained into a clean 55-gallon drum. Approximately 300 pounds of oil-water mixture was poured through the prototype system. It took 13 minutes. When the water was tested after a single pass, only 17 parts of oil per million parts of water remained.
