markusr2007

June 25th, 2010 at 6:04 PM ^

far more appropriate.

Rob from the rich (BP) and give to the poor (fishers and Gulf-coast petro-chemical employees).....Wait a minute....are they poor?

jmblue

June 25th, 2010 at 7:31 PM ^

Once again, real-life history predicted by The Simpsons:

 

Brockman: Kent Brockman at the Action News desk.  A massive tanker has run aground on the central coastline, spilling millions of gallons of oil on Baby Seal Beach.

 

Lisa: [gasps] Oh, no!

 

Homer: It'll be okay, honey.  There's lots more oil where that came from.

 

Brockman: A clean-up effort is already underway, and as always, the first to pitch in are those unsung heroes, Hollywood movie stars.

 

Seriously though, the technology for extracting oil after a spill has existed for some time.  I'm not quite sure what Costner's scientific "breakthrough" is.

Fat Mike

June 25th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^

It seems that BP doesn't care about the cleanup, just about salvaging the oil and the resevoir. They need to step aside and let the people who do care do what really needs to be done. Hopefully this is an eye-opener for everyone and we can finally sever ties between oil companies and the auto industry.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

June 26th, 2010 at 7:22 PM ^

Of which new compounds are you thinking? Are you expecting unsaturated hydrocarbons--many of which are already terminal alcohols/carboxylic acids--to react with water to form alcohol/epoxide/ketone centers? That may be, but I would have anticipated that the hydrophobic (duh) nature of hydrocarbons would have relatively well sequestered these--largely in micellar, if not liposomal complexes--from the aqueous environment of the sea.

Thoughts?

Anyway, if you agree with me at all on this latter point, then I have to agree with you that these sequestered complexes abide by [thermo]dynamic diffusion equilibria and that unreacted hydrocarbon species that react with hydrophilic species will become more hydrophilic themselves, thereby allowing their diffusion away from micellar/liposomal enclosures. In this way, reacted hydrocarbon species would persist away from the oily environment in which they were synthesized, thereby enabling the "hydrocarbon dissolved in a micelle" to "hydrocarbon dissolved in the sea [where it can meet reactive species]" equilibrium to, unfortunately, find itself perpetually shifted to the right (as those species are persistently removed from the system, by reaction, and need to be replaced).

Thoughts?

Super J

June 26th, 2010 at 3:21 AM ^

Yeah their government only came out 2 months ago and said they have done it twice.  Im sure that it was some CRAZY idea thought up by vodka crazied loonies.  While we sit back like a bunch of morons staring at it hoping it will stop by magic.   Meanwhile, enjoy your trip to the gulf this (or any future) summer. 

maizenbluenc

June 26th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^

maybe try a onventional one first. I guess the ol' blow the well head up thing is to extinquish fires, and blowing a depth charge would more likely make a bigger less accessable mess of pipe.

still dont understand why theey dont weld up a giant dome and lower over thee sucker with vacuum hoses attached ...

Magnus

June 26th, 2010 at 6:35 AM ^

Kevin Costner is a shitty actor, but I wouldn't care if it was Andy Katzenmoyer or David Boston if it would actually help.  The incompetence of BP is staggering.

Mgobowl

June 26th, 2010 at 7:14 AM ^

can someone explain how his technology is new or unique. From my understanding it's basically a centrifuge strapped to a barge. Centrifuges have been around for quite some time. Podbielniak separators have been around since the fifties and are much more complex than a basic centrifuge. What am I missing here?

Njia

June 26th, 2010 at 8:57 AM ^

It'll pale in comparison to this "charlie-foxtrot" (i.e. "cluster f--k") episode. The incompetence being displayed by all parties is just mind-boggling.