Perspectives on Innovation

It’s doubtful this solution would have worked. Flow from the well was a complex three-phase mix of oil, brine, and natural gas. Freezing is more likely to give you slush than a solid plug. Also, the heat load calc does not reference the flow rate and temperature of the mix exiting the well. The local water temp is not the determining factor. This approach might work if you could freeze a very long section of pipe so that you build up a long plug inside, but the riser from the ocean floor was too short.

Given the surrounding pressures at that depth, the liquid nitrogen would not have boiled off, therefore there would be no refrigeration effect.

[...] http://blog.innocentive.com/2010/08/31/oil-spill-challenge-“solution-revealed”-7-the-freeze/ [...]

this is not the first time it has happened or the last time such accidents as gulf oil spill take place in future. no ideal solutions have yet been offered. damage done is, to put it mildly, of gigantic scale.

when a limb is severed in an accident, the first thing recommended is to put a tourniquette with immediately available rope or string or similar material to stem the blood gushing out. some such thing put in place to take care of such future accidents of oil spills could be considered.

The temperature of the oil was more than 100 degrees and the pressure of the flow 900 Bar.
that means a huge quantity of energie heating up the nitrogen. And just pushing the ice out of the way.
Even under the ground the freezing and around the well the amount of energy -heat and pressure-
is to high to let the oil freeze.

I’ve already consulted the elements gases charts, there is no way that liquid N2 would have an effect due to the pressures that are realized either within the bore flow or external of the bore into the surourround 5k+ depth pressures of the surroundign salinic fluid. At best, a brine mush would emulate and near immediately dispurse due to crystalin exposures within the surrounding brine / saline solubles, mean ocean. Most of all, we are dealing with pressured close to resembling that of N2 or 717 containment into liquid form. FIrst off, in refrigeration, it is the sublimination from liquid to gaseous molecules that have the effects fo temperture drop. second, nitrogen, being an absorbed gas just as anhydrous, will simply sublim into the surrounding media as again, an absorbed gas molecule, great for feeding nutrient, sucks for the depth and pressures we’re dealing with. The freeze concept is for sure, a concept worth further merit and a closer look at potential use. key elements to overcome are 1. pressures within the bore and surround atmos and 2. flow volumes.

Such ideas useful even the success is doubtful. You need long insulated pipes to pump the liquid nitrogen. Further to that the same pipe should accurately target the bore hole. If this can be done correctly it can be used to collect the escaping oil safely instead of pumping Nitrogen.

I’ve already consulted the elements gases charts, there is no way that liquid N2 would have an effect due to the pressures that are realized either within the bore flow or external of the bore into the surrounding 5k+ depth pressures of the surrounding salinic fluid. At best, a brine mush would emulate and near immediately dispurse due to crystalin exposures within the surrounding brine / saline solubles, meaning ocean. Most of all, we are dealing with pressured close to resembling that of N2 or 717 containment into liquid form. First off, in refrigeration, it is the sublimination from liquid to gaseous molecules that have the effects of temperture drop. second, nitrogen, being an absorbed gas just as anhydrous, will simply sublim into the surrounding media as again, an absorbed gas molecule, great for feeding nutrient, sucks for the depth and pressures we’re dealing with. The freeze concept is for sure, a concept worth further merit and a closer look at potential use however reducing the casing ro bore metalics coudl casue far more damages in fatigue that what si imposed upon the bore by the escaping velocity frequencies. key elements to overcome are 1. pressures within the bore and surround atmos and 2. flow volumes.

my may / june submittal for direct mechanical throttle application still holds for me, it is what was used via submittal to Robert Bea / Thad Allen / BP and is what aided stoping of the spill. reality here is that as the russians stated they had tried with limited success if at first thsoe combined to think a crisis through can nto overcome the dection of the crowds, let us add a magic pill that overcomes the crowds weaknesses. Sometimes, the lumberjack must use his smarts in leveraging the tree to get it where he needs so his cabin can be built. No different in solving many crisis issues. I do see a viable appication toward a potential nano pill for well applications, just not yet clearly… If I were to inject anything, ti may would be additional hydrates into the bore along with the use of a discharge restrictor fo some type. But then why, would one go to that route when I have already provided what was used in a throttling sealable spool piece that has already proven it’s viability. One of the most frustrating things to me during the entire event was the inability to penetrate the shell communications to the real ones in the front lines of the situation. Through diligent means, I gained answers and new by submitting my concept to Robert Bea as a lowly plumber it woudl catch his immediate attention. I succeeded, the well is shut. I gave freely in an crisis, only asked for somethign simple in return and all I seem to acheive is getting snuffed. so read Robert Bea’s interview with the Chritstian Monitor and remember, I am the lowly plumber… sci physics and math, self taught for the most part… saddness is, when a step up is before you and you’ve given something no one else did or could, ones climb up those steps to somethign actually successful is hardest thwarted by others… a concept that saddens me… i have far more to give, but I have to live…

I am very perplexed because I already submitted a similar solution in May 2010 to your website regarding the controlled injection of liquid nitrogen into the well shaft using robotic subs. Your reply was that no one was listening or your personnel were not able to submit my solution to the Deep Horizons Group at that time. This is why I do not trust anyone with my ideas.

Michael (and all)–I want to address your concern directly and clearly, and provide you with absolute assurance that we have not given your solution to anyone. We received over 900 submissions for this challenge. As you know, we (and many others who were trying to help at various levels) were unsuccessful locating a Seeker within or around BP, despite vigorous attempts. We therefore did not pass on or send solutions to a Seeker or any other organization. Despite the relative uniqueness of several solutions we received (including the Freezing post above) each one we posted in this series was representative of several or many similar solutions. I can assure you the solution above was submitted independently of yours, by the Solver listed in the post. As you know, we take transparency and our Agreements with Solvers and Seekers very seriously (these are at the core of our business) and I hope our efforts to explain and reassure help allay your concern in this regard. Best, JD

When changing a valve on any water system, you tape a rag or bag around the pipe then fill it with dry ice. This will freeze the water in the pipe to form a plug without swelling the pipe, or loss of integrity in the piping material. That being said with the differance in water temp. at sea floor to surface being so great it would be quit easy to obtain what ever temp. you need to form a plug. The calculations for the length of super cooled area would have to be done, and the expansion rate of said materials also done to see if the pipe could hold. The cooling would be done with a simple evaporator made to clamp hydraulically around the pipe vert. or horz., with fingers of piping weaving back and forth like claws, for whatever length you would need. At such depth the condenser could work more efficiently do to heat release in very cold water.

Second the pipe could be a little short above the floor but we all know it was bent at almost 90* to the floor when the well sunk. Oil company’s know how deep the sediment is, and the casing has to be inbedded in solid rock for the blow out perventer to work. A little excavation around the pipe would expose enough pipe to freeze with this system. Also using the bend as a major friction point, allowing even less temp. for the freeze to slow or stop flow. There is lots of differant tool around that can excavate at this depth. All cable are now buryed on ocean floors to stop deep fishing from damaging them.

Methane is itself an effective refrigerant, yet it did not freeze the oil. What could very well have a chance of freezing and forming an ice plug at that depth/temperature/pressure would be fresh water injected just after the BOP.

Personally, I would prefer a simple mechanical seal. I would secure a chain link bag over the end of the riser pipe and another wrapped around the riser pipe bend/crack, then do the junk shot. A junk shot will work every time if there is something to catch the junk.

In the event of a compromised wellhead or broken pipe, if the main intent continues to be to acquire as much oil as possible by the most direct means possible, then the chances are there will still be problems.

The footage of the oil rising through water indicated that oil rising through water is not itself hazardous provided it is contained in a wider pipe or tubing. BP’s first attempt to capture this oil would have worked if the piping had been wider, (and the oil suctioned when it reached the surface), because the mix would have been less likely to form crystals blocking the flow.

Positioning a heavy wrap around the base of a compromised wellhead or on the seabed around a broken pipe, and in order to support wider piping or tubing so the oil-water mix is contained, the tubing having a concertina top end to rise and fall with the waves, and being attached to buoys at the surface, would reduce the risk of further damage by taking the pressure off the compromised structures.

The suction at the surface could also be delivered through a buoyant pipeline, the top chamber being filled with air for buoyancy, and the oil transportation bottom chamber’s lip being at the level of the surface oil, the pipeline being attached by a cover to the top end of the tubing, a device which could continue unmanned.

In storm weather conditions, the heavy wrap positioned around a compromised wellhead or broken pipe could support a bridging pipe, with oil and water density dependent separation cavities, the mostly oil water mix then being suctioned along the sea floor to storage or centrifuges.

This relatively straightforward technology could replace the more complicated in fully functioning wellhead oil acquisition, the point being that the efficient separation centrifuges make it that much easier to work with oil-water mixes when circumstances require.

Please say if you’d like to see patent application for the three designs and if an investor could be identified.

Thank you.

Rosemary Jones.

The idea is an old one but wouldn’t have been used here for several reasons. First, because the oil/gas/water mixture’s temperature a few feet into the wellhead would have been somewhere around 100 degrees. That and the flow rate inside the drill pipe was much, much faster than the flow we could usually saw on the ROV monitor (going from a 4-inch plus drill pipe interior diameter to a ~20-inch riser diameter slows the flow a lot). So the heat exchange would have to have occurred starting many, many feet below the top of the open drill pipe to do any good.

Secondly, if they had been able to insert anything into the flowing drill pipe, they would have used a packer that would have sealed the pipe interior, an idea generations old.

We also had flow coming up through the partially closed BOP that this idea wouldn’t have been able to stop. Freezing oil inside a pipe works (it’s been used for years in the oilfield) when there is a relatively slow flow and the N2 is applied around the pipe.

Having been in the refrigeration industry for 40 years, I can tell you that it is not as easy as it looks, but then nothing ever is.

As Roy Colins pointed out, the velocity of the oil flow decreases with pipe diameter and vice versa. As the oil is frozen from the outside of the pipe inwards, the effective diameter decreases, increasing the velocity, making the center most difficult to freeze. At the same time that center is furthest from the cooling source and partially insulated by the frozen oil.

There are easier ways to plug a pipe, all of which should be explored before rather than during a major crisis.

We like this site shown and that has provided myself some sort of inspiration to succeed for some reason, so keep up the good work.

To those of you who get excited because you “thought of it first”, I can assure you that this idea popped up in every refrigeration discussion forum on the planet (each person thinking it was an original idea) and was thoroughly discussed and discarded for this particular application.

Whatsmore, the frozen plug has been used in a variety of industries, including the oil industry, for a very long time.

The same is true for inflatable devices, electromagnetic devices, pneumatic devices, mechanical devices and probably every other means of plugging a pipe. People have been plugging and unplugging pipes since there have been pipes.

Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for your weblog. You have some really good articles and I feel I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some content for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an email if interested. Thank you!

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