Editor’s note: More than a month after what is now the largest oil spill in U.S. history, ideas from inventors on how to stop the flow keep coming. I’ve decided to repost this May 21, 2010 entry at the top again – be sure to review the comments below:
BP’s busted pipe continues to gush crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting slick is now poisoning shores. Brace yourself for goo-covered pelicans, belly-up alligators, wasteland that was marshland.
BP officials – surprise! – now concede they underestimated how much oil is belching from its hose 5,000 feet underwater. Buckling to pressure from government and others, BP yesterday set up a Web cam. You can see the grainy video feed from its ROV monitor.
We launched our 2010 Collegiate Alternative-Energy Challenge to showcase the need for energy innovation before this latest catastrophe. I would hope the BP disaster will serve as an urgent, game-changing motivator to move away from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels – what an apt description.
Meanwhile, inventors from across the country have inundated BP, the U.S. government and, yes, Inventors Digest, with ideas on how to stop the flow of oil into the ocean. Even actor Kevin Costner is stepping up – he funded a sort of vacuum cleaner technology developed by Ocean Therapy Solutions.
One inventor from New Jersey suggested dumping mounds of sandbags, ant-hill style, on top of the gushing pipe. The mass could stem the flow, he reasons, and even could be drilled later for oil extraction.
Michael Max of Texas also wrote us yesterday with a solution. (We featured Max’s new horizontal windmill idea in our April 2010 print edition.)
“I don’t care if you remove my name,” he said, “I would just like to see the leak stopped. After all this is in my backyard.”
Here’s his Horizon Leak Solution:
#1:
- Bring the 4 story house back to the surface for modifications. Completely remove the top of the structure and reattach with hinge.
- Put some sort of locking mechanism opposite of hinge, something the robotic submersibles can handle.
- Add an extra short piece cable to the top of the of the connecting pipe flange.
- Lower house back down with the top open.
- Once house is in place unhook it and have submersables connect 1 hook to the short piece of cable on the flange.
- Take up tension with the topside crane and close top.
- Run submersibles in to secure hinged top in place.
#2:
- Bring house up to surface. Have valves & welding crew waiting on deck.
- Cut holes in top of house and ready valves to be put in place.
- Send house back down with all of the valves open.
- Put house in place. Connect mile long pipe to surface.
- Close all of the valves.
- Done.
Either one of these solutions should only take 12 to 18 man hours to complete, Max says.
Put this on the news!! Where is CNN when you need them
Regarding Oil Leak in the Gulf. If BP can therad in a siphoning pipe into the ruptured line, then why not have a hydraulically inflatable donut arount the siphoning tube which can be inflated inside the ruptured pipe. This could seal the pipe and still allow the pressurized flow to be contained in the siphon pipe to the surface
they should just shoot down the throat of that drill pipe a thermo-nuclear charge and then detonate that. It should do the trick. No well thereafter.
This Gulf oil spill problem is VERY simple to control. All that needs to be done is to dump a few hundred tons of hay, (yes, regular old hay) all over the spill area. The oil will cling to the hay and wash up wherever it will. However, it will be very simple to pick up the hay after it washes ashore because the oil-saturated-hay will stop at the high-tide mark on all the beaches, just like regular old seaweed does now. Come on, we’ve ALL seen a band of high-tide seaweed along any beach in the World. Now the oil will be simple to clean up because all that needs to be done is to pick up the hay along the beaches. The hay will hold the oil and prevent the oil from penetrating the sandy beaches. Hay on oil; oil clings to hay; hay washes ashore; hay and oil are easily picked up by using normal beach cleaning equipment that every beach-town has to clean its sandy beaches. Simple. Problem solved. OR
you’all can continue to whine and cry about your lost livelihood and become just another part of the problem instead of working smart to affect its resolution. As more oil is spilt into the water, just keep adding more hay until the leak is plugged, and soon the water will become crystal clear. Because it WILL become crystal clear again if this suggestion is applied and followed.
Not a TOTAL fix however. The leak still has to be capped, and the birds will still have to be washed, etc. to save them. But at least the oil will be contained and the beaches will be saved. Git’er DONE !!
one thing is for sure:
BP is NOT able to stop this leak.
They need a more innovativ solution, in stead, the trial and error method they do now for 34 days.
this disaster is already out of control, and the dispers fluid makes it only worse, bevause the hydrofobic nature of the crue is ruined, and its almost impossible now to use adsorbing booms.
It doe snot float anymore, that oil and is floating in small drops IN the water, in stead of a blanket ON the water.
Its incredible. really.
What about patentrights, if someone post here a real solution for this spill?
Who is runing away with that idea, and making lots of money?
Can someone explain more about that?
Iron balls. The size of the balls would depend on the diameter of the oil well casing. If the casing were 36 inches the balls would be 16 inches in diameter. If the casing were 24 inches in diameter the balls would be 10 inches in diameter. The idea here is that two balls could easily fit down the pipe side by side which would make it almost impossible for them to not fall down it. The balls themselves could be quickly cast in a multitude of low tech foundry’s. They don’t have to be precisely made but they would have to be polished. (Less friction) Load about 50 (?) dump barges full of these steel balls and position them directly over the well and dump them one after another in rapid succession. Oh and don’t doubt the accuracy, GPS makes that easy. The balls would pile up around the well and eventually enough of them would find their way down the pipe to slow the flow. Once the flow slows another series of barges would follow, this time with steel balls of a smaller diameter. The slower the flow, the smaller diameter balls would be dumped. The size of the balls would eventually be reduced down to the size of buckshot. The idea here is to create a sort of an aggregate that would fill in even the little holes. Once the flow is slowed or stopped the balls will start to rust. Cast iron rusts very quickly in salt water which will seal the pipe.
High strength guide wire should be introduced as far into the opening as possible to secure purchase at an estimated section of the is deemed good. secondary over wire which slides over guide wire with an inflatable hydro section for sealing off and then removal of guide wire will allow a control of flow. make reference to the procedure of guide wire insertion and dilation deployment in the procedure that GI doctors call an ercp
Bp should freeze the ruptured oil pipe and cap off the pipe. Regarding the spill that is blanketing the Gulf I would recommend using hydrocloric sand to clean up the oil spill.
This will not work. The oil inside the box is under extremely high pressure and will just leak out where the box contacts the ground.
All you need is 10 to 100 billion volt magnetic pulser rod the size to fill in where the oil is gushing from the pipe. It won’t take months to build and it was increase the weight and pressure higher than the amount of oil thats coming out. The magnetic wave pass through to the rest of the oil in underground sea floor pushing the oil back overcoming the pressure. Its equivalent to suspending or moving a few hundred buildings in the air. The technology already exists to clean the oil from the oceans and rivers.
If they will use a “bandsaw” to cut the top off the pipe, why not simply cut a slot halfway thru the pipe and slide a mating plate into the slot to stop the flow.
I cannot believe that there was not something in place to stop such flow before drilling! What is going on here?
for sure they should come in from the side..not from the top..basicaly like a long handle with a cap that is made to fit over the top of the pipe….a hinge attached to the side of the cap and a clamp attached to the other side of the hinge…once the the clamp is fixed in place the handle is picked up and over the well line using basic leverage..inside the cap there would be an expandable rubber washer to be expanded by tightening a nut on top of the cap…i could go on but thats the simple picture…bp is a joke and the media is making so much off this theres really no insentive to stop it…i tried to send pictures but couldn’t get through..billy
Top cap with many venting valves that can be opened and closed to relieve pressure and have ability to connect to with multiple lines. Like and octopus with many oil tankers at surface to take oil.
How about a simple idea? Assume the ruptured pipe is 24 inches. Afew feet below the rupture, drill a 12 in. hole in one side. Apply a flange and a vacuum line. 180 degrees across from the 12 in. flange and down a few feet, drill another hole/apply another vacuum line. Cap the original ruptured pipe and all of the crude oil goes up the two seperate 12 inch vacuum lines to the oil well and all is solved. the oil leak is completely stopped and the original 24 inch vacuum is in full effect.
Idea:they slot the pipe horizontally about 12″, on opposing sides, perhaps enough to slide in a piece of steel maybe 4-5ft long and however many inches thick all the way thru; the steel plate would be hinged, with 2 “butterfly” flaps on the sides opposing the slots, and which, when extended, are slightly wider than the inside diameter of the pipe. When placed all the way thru both slots, the pressure of the upflow of the oil will force the flaps up, effectively cutting off most of the pressure and flow out the top. Then, as that pressure is reduced, they can quickly weld a seal at the slot openings or bolt on a sealing band (as well as clean-up and level the top of the pipe and weld a cap on it without fighting pressure of oil flow), also inserting rummber grommets or cuchions afterward, in the slots, to prevent flow from constantly slamming the plate against the pipe, and so causing more stabilization of the plate.
…also coating the outer flap edges with a cushioning rubber to prevent damage to pipe when flap slams up against pipe from flow pressure…i want to post diagrams here, but don’t know how…help from anyone? (though with more time, sure i could figur it out, but… 🙂 )
…RUBBER grommets, and CUSHIONS in the slots, sealing with the plate, and stabilizing it after insertion. Sorry about that folks.
Forgive my rudimentary mechanics, but consider my overly simplistic solution: Insert a smaller diameter tube (6″, 12″, ?) within the existing 21″ riser tube. This could be done through the just-installed temporary riser connected to the drilling ship. This smaller tube has a hydraulic expanding seal that opens like an cone or umbrella at the very end. Run this tube down the full length of the riser pipe to the very end where it penetrates into the oil reservoir (18,000 ft ?). Inflate the “umbrella” conical seal (inverted butt plug) using non-compressible hydraulic fluid via pressure lines connected to drilling ship. Once opened, the reservoir pressure would force the seal tightly against the bottom of the riser pipe. Since the smaller pipe is always open at one end, there is always a path for oil and gas to flow and relieve back pressure. Once installed and a tight seal is formed, it would block the vast majority of the outgoing oil and gas, and almost all of the remaining oil and gas would flow through this “new” pipe up to the surface collection vessel. Once this measure of control is achieved, the space between the old riser and the new riser could be back filled with cement and ultimately sealed.