Cleaning oil using hay

It has been proposed to use hay to soak oil up using hole. Large amounts of hay could be put into the sea which will soak up the oil. The hay could then be collected on the coast when it washed up. Alternately, hay can be put into large nets and boats can drag nets across the surface of the sea and soak up the oil. A video demonstration of using hay to soak up the oil can be found here. http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

=Feasibility Assessment=

How much hay is needed
One determinant of feasibility is how much hay would be needed. The hay appears to cling to the surface of the hay so one way to calculate this amount would be to determine the amount of oil recovered per surface area of the hay then determine the surface area to weight or bail ratio.

Surface area to weight ratio of hay
=References=

=External Links=

Information on hay density from North Dakota State University