In this segment of his Big Think interview, Dwayne tells the story of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI), which faced the challenge of removing viscous oil from the bottom of Prince William Sound after the the Exxon Valdez oil spill. After 20 years of trying to solve this problem, they turned to InnoCentive and received a solution from an InnoCentive Solver who had no background in the oil and gas industry.  This story illustrates the power of diversity and the effectiveness of tapping into a pool outside of your own experts.

Over the years, we’ve heard about Solvers using their winnings for all manner of things – from philanthropy to upgrading lab equipment to upgrading home entertainment equipment.  John Davis, winner of the OSRI oil spill Challenge is planning to use his winnings to fund a trip to Alaska, to help the Seeker, the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, develop and implement his solution.  In addition, he donated some of his winnings to OSRI to be used toward finding more environmentally friendly methods of cleaning up oil spills.

What about you?  What have you done with your winnings?  If you haven’t yet won an award, what do you think you would do?  Tell us!

Scott Pegau:
Actually, the process of setting up a prize program predates my arrival at OSRI.  The idea had been kicked around for a couple years, but hadn’t fully developed because of the need to ensure the program was properly run and advertised.  Once InnoCentive was identified as a mechanism to post and manage challenges we started to actually draft the concepts that have become the challenges we have released.

LM:
Do you have plans to implement this solution soon?

SP:
Since it was a theoretical solution we are very interested in seeing if the theory will work as well in practice as we think it will.  We are developing the groundwork to test it this winter once conditions get cold enough.  We probably would have done the test a year ago, but we needed to arrange it in our budget cycle and design a test program.

LM:
What impact to you expect this solution to have on recovery efforts, and the environment in Alaska?

SP:

The challenge was for an application most likely to be needed in the Arctic.  We haven’t had a need for the equipment to be used in the past, but the need to have the capability to empty tanks in very cold conditions has been identified for a while.  With luck and care we will never need the solution to be used, but it nice to know we will be able to transfer oil out of holding tanks if a spill does occur.

LM:
It sounds like much of your work is preventative, which is great to hear. I hear you have recently posted two new Challenges on the same topic in our Clean Tech and Renewable Energy Pavilion. Can you tell me a bit about them, and what you hope the solutions will mean for your work in Alaska?

SP:
We actually posted three new Challenges recently.  All three are theoretical and address issues that we face on a regular basis.  The first is a means to keep recovery equipment from freezing up.  When it is below zero and you run equipment in water it starts to have ice building up on it.  We need a method to prevent the ice from forming within the capabilities of the ships deploying the equipment and without adding a lot of material to the oil that is recovered.

The second challenge is to develop a boom system that will work in broken ice.  Booms are commonly used to either collect oil or protect areas.  The problem is that ice ranges in size from very small to very large so it can either clog a system or crush it.  We need a system that can collect oil without collecting ice.

Our third challenge is for a means to detect oil in inclement weather such as fog or rain.  When visibility is poor it is hard for the recovery vessels to be able to detect where the oil is so that they go to the proper area to begin cleaning.  We are looking for a way for the boat captains to see where the oil is when they can’t use their eyes.

LM:
What kinds of opportunities are there for Solvers to impact the environment in a positive way, by working on these Challenges?

SP:
These challenges are all designed to improve our ability to respond to an oil spill.  With increased development in Arctic waters we need to ensure we can respond if there is an accident.  The primary plan is to prevent spills from occuring, but if there is one we need to have the best tools to respond with in order to minimize environmental damage.

I had an interesting conversation with Michael Anuzis yesterday about ways to continue to improve the depth of opportunity that InnoCentive offers to contributers who want to make a difference in the world. He is one of many individuals who have blogged, called, emailed or dm’d me recently with ideas for growing our business. It’s pretty inspiring to see how strongly people believe in the concept of InnoCentive. He suggested that we find a way to allow individuals to contribute small amounts of money towards innovation projects they see on InnoCentive.com. Much like the contribution model of our friends at Global Giving. I suggested that perhaps we could even allow individuals to post an idea for a Challenge that they feel strongly about, and then use the website as a way to gather financial support around it. Once the support has hit a certain level, they would be allowed to post the Challenge and ask for solutions. These are just initial ideas, and I know you have more – please share them with us! As we grow the business, especially the philanthropic side of the business, we want to hear your thoughts.

One summer I gained some experience pouring concrete, and I used some of what I learned from that experience to help solve the InnoCentive Challenge “Breaking Viscous Shear of Crude Oil”. Concrete vibrators are used to allow the concrete to easily flow into fine cracks and crevices, and also are used to restore liquid flow to concrete that has begun to set-up prematurely. I realized that with some minor modifications, pneumatic concrete vibrators could solve the problem of Breaking the Viscous Shear of Crude Oil by restoring liquid flow to the icy slush mixture.

I plan to take a vacation and visit OSRI in Cordova Alaska when it gets warmer. It means a lot to me to know that my Innocentive Solution was used by OSRI because their work is so important. It is very exciting to know that my idea is helping their cause. I intend to make a donation to OSRI with some of the award money so that they can find the most environmentally friendly means to clean up oil spills.

For more details on my story, click here to watch my video on YouTube.