With all the oil gushing out of the sunken oil rig, there is now talk about trying to burn most of it off. altho I suppose any risks involved here would be better than letting the slicks reach land, i'm wondering why there is no kind of a reclaimer rig available to scoop up this oil. Cooks everywhere ahve what the call a gravy separator in the kitchens. This is a simple device that allows the grease, oil in this instance, to rise and settle on top and then is gently poured off so that the lighter no fat liquid, water in this instance, to be poured off, thus trapping the grease or oil in our case. Then the oil could be re-processed. But i've not heard of any such thing out there but it would seem that something like this should be fairly inexpensive and generally an eco-friendly solution in that it keeps oil from reaching land and also from spewiong all the smoke into the air from a burn off.
Any other ideas?
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gafinfan likes this.
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It's certainly a large scale for sure and while it wouldn't be cheap in any sense of the word, it would however be a lot cheaper than the cleanup once it hits land. And of course, doing nothing at all only guarantees disaster.
gafinfan likes this. -
Its funny you make this suggestion as last night a friend and I were talking about the very same thing, just not the same idea, which is a good one imo.
My thought was along the idea of some sort of cutoff/cap valve at the ground level. We didn't have this kind of problem after Katrina, did we? Yet the damage was much greater in the Gulf than just one rig?
I'm no expert but I thought the Alaskan pipeline had cutoffs every so often expressly for this purpose. I realize we are talking about a mile down in the gulf, but still, surely we have the tech to handle that little problem!DeDolfan likes this. -
That's sounds like an excellent precautionary idea. You would think some kind of emergency shutoff right down there at the bottom could be installed during or right after drilling is complete. Then above that valve, there might also be a breakaway section. If another event happens like this, the well pipe to the surface breaks away, then the valve automatically closes. There are already valves of this nature that close according to flow rates. But you're right, current technology surely should be sufficient to handle this. :up:
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Well it seems I'm a day late and a dollar short, but the darn think didn't work!:shifty:
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100510/US.Gulf.Oil.Spill.Washington/
Now my question is why the hell no backup?:lol: -
I'm just shocked that we didn't already have a plan in place to deal with these things. Every ROI (Return on Investment) report that I have put together I always include a 'How this can fail' aspect to my reports. This allows us to be better prepared and gives us a greater chance for success.
So why don't we have a plan in place for these situations? There should be a team of people constantly looking at the 'What Ifs" and planning for the worst. They should also have all the equipment needed to handle these situations. They should be able to respond within hours if not minutes when situations like these arise.
Even if we can prevent the spill from hitting land at this point the damage already done is horrific. Imagine if 2 of these rigs went bad at the same time? Now Imagine or 6 or more were attacked by terrorist. We need to always try and be prepared for the worst. It's sad when we obviously aren't even prepared for the least devastating of all the scenarios. -
I think the thing with oil is when it goes bad, its very damaging. I'm not so sure its a "we just didn't see this coming thing" as much as a "theres not a whole lot we can do once it happens thing."
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Nah Lucky, I tend to agree with most everything you say but I have to disagree with you on this one. There has to be a response team in place. There has to be a contingency plan in place if something goes wrong. This plan has to be able to hand this and it has to be ready to roll out at a moments notice. Not until such a plan is in place should anyone be allowed to drill off shore.
This isn't the first time we (as a people not just as a nation) have failed to provide an adequate response to such a disaster albeit smaller scales. If there simply isnt anything we can do or if we are not willing to fund this then we should not be allowed to drill off our shore. -
Well this is partially the reason environmentalist are so opposed to offshore drilling. The problem is you have a spill offshore, or on a boat, it hits the water. The current can take it all over the place and that is why its so hard to stop from spreading. That is my point once it hits the water its already going to cause damage, then the currents do the rest. The fact that the process of pulling it out of the ground has bad side effects should tell you that when its good its ok, but when its bad its really bad.
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Everyone knows that Murphy's law will show up sooner or later. The Space program, as an example, has several redundant systems just for this very reason. So even though there have been screw ups they have been few and far between and even more telling they knew these things might happen ahead of time and it was only the lack of will or those too might have been averted.
The Oil companies, on the other hand, have no excuse they can only sit there with their ***** in their hand!DeDolfan and LandShark13 like this. -
If you are correct and there simply is no solution for dealing with a disaster on an offshore rig. Then we not only need to forbid any new rigs from being installed we need to shutdown all the existing ones. The damage that this is going to cause (causing) is beyond belief.
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there is a solution. A sister well capped. That is what they are trying to do know....drill to release the pressure and divert the oil to another head.
? is why they are not required from the start as a contingency plan. Nope!!!! We only wait until a disaster happens and allow millions of gallons of oil into the gulf for 3 months. This could easily become the worst disaster in the history of the world!!!!
Hurricane season is just around the corner and it will take BP 2 months into it to get the new well head active. Seems like we could have drilled that hole before it became an emergency......oh wait that cost money and wouldn't be good for BP's bottom line........my bad -
right on:up:
Bring on the electric car......right now.
Millions of jobs created building the infrastructure needed to do it!!
Now there is change you can count on!!
http://www.teslamotors.com/Fin D, FinSane, unluckyluciano and 2 others like this. -
Allow me to say something, Ron. You're right that Murphy's law will prevail so the next logical step in thinking should be what do we do when this thing breaks. key point being when, not if. It really makes you wonder if the real reason for any preventive measures is because of $$$. My thinking has been why there wasn't a back flow preventer of some kind installed so when that thing does break, like it did, the flow automatically shuts off. Would that device not be cost effective? Compare that to the total cost of cleanup/restitution???
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Nuke it... :lol:
http://trueslant.com/juliaioffe/2010/05/04/nuke-that-slick/ -
Okay so we have a major spill.
????? What are they doing to the other rigs to make sure this doesn't happen again.........answer Nothing......costs too much money
and you thought it was about the environment:sidelol:
I will wage a Benjamin that nothing is done or even talked about with any degree of seriousness at anytime in the foreseeable future -
The Obama administration has this thing about taking advantage's of crises. Well, there's a crisis in the gulf and this is yet more proof that we need to move away from fossil fuels by laying the foundation to developing environmentally stable alternative forms of energy.
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Works for me but does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to recharge from an outlet at home? We hear all this talk about pluin hybrid, straight electric cars and the like but no mention, that I've seen, about any estimated electricity costs to recharge at home.
Also for the problem at home, check this out.......
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/artic...l-spill-lie-in-secret-saudi-disaster/19476863 -
This is a low cost alternative which has been used successfully in oil spills in South America.http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/262413219/Bio_One_Oil_Spill_Bioremediation_Product.html
Unfortunately its a low cost alternative which means there is little money to be made by the cleaners so no one is likely to promote such a cheap alternative.
Expensive solutions are what they are looking for. -
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So, it's clear of 5,000 gallons a day and BP won't let scientists down there to get actual totals.
Really? WON'T LET? They don't own the ****ing ocean floor. This whole situation is infuriating.DeDolfan likes this. -
Now that this "top kill" attempt has failed, what next. i've been wondering lately as to why there is not bladder to install down the well. This could work similar to a stent but backwards. Instead of opening up, it clogs and shuts down. I've seen these bladders installed down old chimneys to retrofit a new liner. They installed this bladder down the chimney's length and inflate it. I wonder why this technique wouldn't work down an oil well. Install this long bladder as far down the well as possible, inflate it under hydraulic pressure, perhaps using the same mud they use in drilling. That might hold the leak until they could then fill the rest of the well with concret and allow it to set up. It seems pretty simple to me anyway.
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There was an article in the paper this morning about how BP has received over 30,000 phone calls from ppl offering possible solutions. While they listed only a few, "my idea" was actually listed. So, I guess that means there is at least one more "idiot" out there other than myself!!! :lol:
2socks likes this. -
I believe they had such a device called a blowout preventer. Unfortunately when it exploded it went with it.
The idea I like was a extremely simple one.......using hay to soak up the oil and then burning it once removed to create electricityDeDolfan likes this. -
As i understand it, the blowout preventer sits on the ocean floor but it was damaged during BPs anxious "hurry up and let's knock it out" attitude. As it was told on 60 minutes, some kind of rubber seal was damaged and chunks of it came up in the drilling mud they use but the boss on the job said it was not problem, etc. This was all told on 60 minutes a week ago and if this is true and along with the other info disclosed, BP is clearly at fault, n o question.
Anyway on to your suggestion, that sounds like a very good viable option to contain the oil, or at least a vast portion of it until this relief well can be finished. My suggestion would hopefully be a permanet fix now beofre the relief well is completed. However, either solution is a lot better than what is being done now. -
Could it really be this simple?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6UxiWnCc_g&feature=related"]YouTube- Oil Removal - It's As Simple As Hay[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo&feature=related"]YouTube- CWRoberts Presentation 2.wmv[/ame]
anyone that has ever cleaned an oil spillage with a straw broom after changing the oil in your car knows oil attaches itself to hay.DeDolfan and LandShark13 like this. -
THAT is just amazing. Sometimes, the best remedy is a simple as finding the nose on the end of your face. It would take a "smart amount" of hay tho I reckon. -
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Not sure if this is same thing in general/similar what you're talking about...
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Broadcast...l-cleanup-machine-purchases/story?id=10916445
...who can blame the government and BP?
Kevin Costner is calling again...yes the guy from Waterworld...OK I'll take a message.DeDolfan likes this. -
Yea, pretty much, kinda sorta! ;) That and also the bladder thingie. This is a month ago and now these same ideas are being published, which is good. The thing that pizzes me sort of is that if a dumb *** like me can think of these things, what in the hell are all the PhD engineers doing?