Perspectives on Innovation

With a static kill procedure solution in place on the MC252 well in the Gulf, pressure tests are being performed and results are being reviewed.

Today we’re featuring a solution we received from InnoCentive Solver, Joseph Pegna, which focused on freezing MC252 while it was still blasting oil into the cold waters at the bottom of the Gulf.

The purpose of Pegna’s solution was not to contain the leak from the ocean floor indefinitely, but rather to contain it efficiently until such time as a more permanent plug could be found.

The solution takes advantage of the relatively stable and low temperature of the sea floor to provide a temporary obstruction to the leak by freezing locally available materials: oil and water.

A back-of-the-envelope estimate of leak flow-rates indicates that a few ten’s of cubic meters of liquid Nitrogen would be sufficient to stop the oil in its track. Subsequent freezing of the surrounding water, either by additional liquid N2 or by lowering an industrial refrigeration unit to the ocean floor, would keep an ice plug over the leak.
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The days and weeks pass, and, until last week, oil continued to blast upwards from the bottom of the Gulf. As time marches on, the pace of new solutions has slowed as well, yet we still continue to receive submissions from you about how to stop the gushing oil and protect the coastline.

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!”

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 Renate Wortelboer.

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 Michael White.

Michael White, of Templeman Automation, proposes pneumatic barriers made of sintered rubber aeration tubing.  Such tubing is available for aquaculture applications at about $1/ft, making rapid deployment of long-baseline (>1000ft) pneumatic barriers cost-effective.  It can be made of recycled materials, and does not suffer reduced efficiency from salinity encountered by traditional bubblers.  Specifically, the strength, flexibility, and low drag of sintered bubblers make them well suited for towed applications in which a shipboard compressor provides air to a trailing bubbler system.  Such a mobile system has advantages in three depth regimes:

1. Surface – Towed bubbler arrays provide mobile platforms for “corralling” moving oil as more permanent barriers are devised; adapting to immediate ocean current and wind conditions.  Templeman Automation has tested aeration array systems with up to 1000cfm air flow at over 8 knots.
2. Mid-Water – The depth of the towed bubbler system can be adjusted such that oil suspended in the water column is above the array and thus entrained in the rising bubble plume.  Oil is thereby forced to the surface for remediation.
3. Sea Floor – Towed bubblers can be used to “suction” oil from the sea floor, providing a non-contact pressure gradient that is gentle to sea-floor habitats.  The small bubbles created by aeration tube systems transfer beneficial dissolved-oxygen to affected sea-floor ecosystems.

Michael White, Templeman Automation

I wanted to get a quick blog out today to share some big news: we have been working tirelessly for several months on redesigning our website – I’m pleased and excited to let you know our launch date is in sight, planned for later this summer!

The new site features improved flows, better and more content, and a complete new look & feel we think you’re going to love!

Solver Input: A couple weeks ago I sent an email to a large portion of our Solvers asking for help reviewing and testing aspects of the redesigned website and its content. We received more than two hundred responses within the first twenty-four hours.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the call!

With your input, we’re more excited than ever about the launch.

We’ll provide a more detailed summary of the changes as well as the launch date in a couple weeks.

Best,
JD