With the end of the Gulf Oil Spill Challenge in sight, we wanted to showcase an innovative solution that was submitted by a student from an Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Sciences class from high school in New Jersey.

What I love about this piece is that it came from the leaders of tomorrow (students), it’s simple, and it focuses on the future (the clean up) even while many people and politicians remain focused on the past (blame) or the present (capping the wellhead). Here is the submission:

“Recently in our AP Environmental class, my teacher came in and told us about the oil spill.

He then told us about your website and began having us work on the clean up crisis of the oil.

All of the students partnered up and started to try out their ideas, if they had any.

I then came up with the idea to use baking soda, which led to some good results, and which ultimately led to an expansion of the idea:

We discovered that baking soda would create tar balls for a long enough period of time that you could place something underneath them, collect them, and drag them out of the water in tact.

So then my friend and I tried placing nylon stocking on the oil to see if it would allow the oil to pass through, and it worked.

Nylon stockings allow the oil to seep through, but they block the clean water.

The result of our tests culminated in our final idea, which actually cleaned up the water to near perfect quality:

• Place the stocking on top of the oil (the oil passes through this porous barrier)
• Sprinkle baking soda on the stocking and the oil
• Wait up to one minute
• Pull the stockings out of the water, which collects the tar balls and leaves the water nearly completely clean

We tested this in class on a large scale and we were able to accomplish getting the water clean.

I hope this idea helps in the crisis and we wish you the best of luck!”

I’m a computational biologist with a background in pharmacy and biophysics. I joined InnoCentive three years ago when a colleague mentioned the basic premise: money for good ideas. One of the favorite parts of my job is helping others solve their problems, so I thought it would be nice to have a financial reward accompany the mental challenge. I skimmed through the InnoCentive challenge bulletins for almost two years before I saw a problem that I decided to work on. It had the phrase ‘probabilistic modeling’ in the title, an approach that is extensively used in computational biology. It was one of the first challenge titles I could even understand! As I read the details of the challenge, it became clear that many of the concepts used to tackle biological problems would apply immediately to the challenge. It was lots of fun working against a deadline to develop an analytical solution that could really help someone make sense of their data.

I think the challenges present a great chance for scientists to look at areas beyond their own immediate interests. I was pleasantly surprised to see how directly the skills I’ve developed in particular narrow slices of academic science can be transferred to problems in completely different domains. Reading the challenges also introduces me to problems that I would otherwise not think of, and new tools that are useful for other problems. I’ve tried two challenges so far, one of which was successful. Even the proposal that was not awarded was still fun to work on and I learned some pretty interesting biology and chemistry. I look forward to helping out with other interesting challenges!

If you’re even vaguely interested in the concept behind InnoCentive, I highly recommend at least signing up for the bulletins – It’s just a matter of time before you come across a problem that you can solve!

Greetings, InnoCentive Solvers—

Quick note to inform you that we’ve posted two new Emergency Response 2.0 Challenges around the Gulf Oil Spill disaster: Emergency Response 2.0: Oil Detection on Ocean Surfaces; and Emergency Response 2.0: Oil Collection in Gulf of Mexico.

Innovative solutions to these Challenges will help the organizers and crews clean the water and beaches in the short and medium terms.

For the Oil Detection on Ocean Surfaces Challenge we’re looking for new ways to improve the conventional imaging processes that are currently being deployed, i.e., satellite radar, visual, LIDAR, etc. We are also looking for ways to improve aerial tools aboard helicopters and aircrafts, and, to a lesser degree, surface spotting techniques.

For the Oil Collection in the Gulf of Mexico Challenge we’re looking for commercially available equipment, technology and ideas that would enable the rapid conversion of commercial vessels (e.g., fishing) into oil recovery units.

On the back-end, a board of advisers, currently being assembled, will review the submissions from both Challenges.

That said we also want to take advantage of the perspectives, skills, and talents in the InnoCentive network. In order to accomplish that, we have activated the discussion board within the project rooms.

Please take a look as soon as you can.

Best,

JD

Pipes–horizontal or vertical–from which oil leaks under enormous pressure, could be closed by using the strongest magnets available in several sizes.

A custom made, cone shaped strong magnet with a “collar” at its widest diameter to fit the pipe could withstand the pressure of the flowing oil. If this magnet is not strong enough to withstand the pressure, another magnet could be added on top of the cap, like halter weights.

Small crevices could be covered with a layer of small metal and magnets. The entire structure could then be sealed off with bitumen, cold asphalt, synthetic rubber or any other sealing material. To finish, the bedrock could be restored with stones.

Schematic cross-cut overview:

1. Pipe to be closed
2. Main magnet, first placed
3. Extra weights
4. Magnetic “wings” as long as possible
5. Layer of bits of metal & magnets
6. Layer of sealant
7. Layer of stones

Notes:

It could be investigated whether the wings should be attached later or be on the main magnet already. However, an on/off switch will be required for the wings if already attached.

Around the entire structure, to seal it properly, a thick layer of a mixed iron/steel/magnets could be used. When a layer of synthetic rubber, for example, reinforced with any metal is chosen, it would help if the underlying layer still has magnetic properties.

The main magnet could also be composed of magnetic cubes or balls, glued or attached to steel rods to create a cone shape. This might save time.

Resources for further reading:

Cold asphalt: http://www.coldasphalt.com/

Magnet supplier: http://www.supermagnete.nl/eng/index.php

The days and weeks pass, and oil continues to blast upwards from the bottom of the Gulf. And as time marches on, we continue to receive submissions from you about how to stop the gushing oil and protect the coastline. Because of the importance and magnitude of this disaster, and because we want to keep you apprised of various InnoCentive activity around this Challenge, we are glad to share during the coming weeks the details of several key solutions and ideas we’ve received from you. Today’s post is a summary of a submission by Senthil Kumar.

The aim of this solution is to minimize the oil’s environmental impact to the ocean, land, and life. Coconut Coir (CC) is the fibrous layer outside the coconut shell. It is used around the globe in the manufacture of soil treatments, rope, and doormats.

CC can be used to absorb the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. CC is an excellent bio-absorbent, used for horticultural applications and purposes. It also has very good water retention properties.

The individual fiber cells are narrow and hollow, with thick walls made of Lignin and Cellulose. The phenolic groups in lignin are responsible for initiating the absorbent property. Lignocellulosic materials, such as CC, containing a higher amount of phenolic groups are expected to be more effective scavengers for removal of oils and hydrocarbon from the environment.

CC can absorb as much as 50 times its weight in oil.

Further, CC can be treated with keratin protein (found naturally in goat hair) to improve its oleophilic and aquaphobic properties. The chemically modified novel CC pith can be used for oil absorption and to absorb metals (chromium, lead, zinc, etc.) and hydrocarbons, and its absorbing capacity may increase up to 70%.

The advantages of using CC over other natural and synthetic products are many: it is a low cost solution; it is eco-friendly and bio-degradable; it is 100% natural and widely available (the total world CC fiber production is 250,000 tons—India produces 60% of the total world supply of white coir fiber, while Sri Lanka produces 36% of the total world brown fiber output).