A young UAE national who claims he developed a revolutionary way to clean up disastrous oil spills has been accused of stealing the idea from a company in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf News reported Monday.
Fahmi Obaid Al Shwaehi, 24, from Sharjah, was quoted by the daily as saying that he invented the powder made from household waste after stumbling upon the idea two years ago while changing the oil on his car.
He claims it has the ability to absorb entire oil slicks in seconds, averting environmental damage and eliminating the cost of expensive clean-up operations, the paper said.
Although Shwaehi has not publicly released details of his invention, managers at the Abu Dhabi-based company Al Maqasid Trading Establishment made the allegations after seeing pictures of him demonstrating his product recently in Gulf News.
Siddiq El Sheikh, a technical engineer and General Manager of Al Maqasid Trading, told the paper that he is "100 percent sure" Shwaehi was using his company's product, noting that only someone with a scientific background could create such a powder.
He added, "the product we have is called Oil Hunter, and it is made from old tires. I am absolutely sure the demonstration Shwaehi did was carried out using our product because it looks and reacts in exactly the same way and I would recognize it anywhere" - Albawaba.com
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