Posted on 06/19/2010 8:11:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Actor's Machine Designed to Separate Oil and Water, BP: Tests Confirm Device Works.
After actor Kevin Costner spent weeks calling attention to a high-tech oil cleanup device his company spent years developing, BP tested the machine and overnight released a statement saying that not only does the device work, officials are "excited" about its potential.
"We were confident the technology would work but we needed to test it at the extremes. We've done that and are excited by the results," said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer. "We are very pleased with the results and today we have placed a significant order with OTS [Costner's Ocean Therapy Solutions] and will be working with them to rapidly manufacture and deploy 32 of their machines."
The machine is a centrifuge designed to separate spilled oil from water and, according to Costner, could be instrumental in cleaning up the massive oil slick expanding in the Gulf.
Costner has spent the past 15 years and more than $20 million of his own money to develop the oil separator, which during successful testing, left water 99 percent clean of crude.
"If 20 of my V20s [machines] would have been at the Exxon Valdez, 90 percent of that oil would have been cleaned up within the week," he said, referring to one of the models of the oil separators.
Costner told "Good Morning America" anchor Sam Champion Monday that he became inspired to work on the device after watching coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
That spill occurred off the coast of Alaska when the supertanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef in 1989. Approximately 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Prince William Sound, causing widespread harm to the local wildlife, environment and economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I don’t want to disparage Costner. If he has a machine that works and can help...great. But why is BP behind in this techology? Sheesh.
My she has very LARGE knees!
I was going to say that, but I was sure someone already did. I was right.
I just KNEW somebody would post that!
I love Free Republic!
Another example that someone who is “just an actor” can actually have a brain and some entrepreneurial spirit. Good thing Costner could command some media attention. If it were Joe Sixpack with this fantastic invention, the bureaucrats wouldn’t give it a second look.
Obama denied and fish died.
I thought I heard on the radio that this scooped up oil was unrefineable and would go straight to the landfill.
Not all refineries are the same. The biggest difference as far as process units go are on the front end, and depend on the feedstock they are designed for. Some are designed for light sweet crudes, while others are set up for heavier sour crudes. The latter tend to include desalters and more aggressive crude units, along with vacuum distallation units and cokers, plus H2S extraction units to meet federal fuel standards, and also produce sulfur as a byproduct.
Now will Comrade Zero shoot down Costner’s centrifuge for the same reason as the Dutch skimmers - not 100% efficient? Will he offend his Hollywood constituency, or will he throw Costner under the bus as a way of telling Hollywood “stick to spewing approved Party propaganda”?
If the oil is mixed with chemical dispersants, that may be true.
I think it was refused because it returns a little bit of oil to the water, and Obama didn’t want to give an exception to the rule.
To succeed in getting $7/gallon gas plus cap and trade passed, it is necessary to have the worse possible environmental impact from the oil.
Obama is about destroying the United States as we know it, isn't that OBVIOUS now?
Yeah.. It’s definitely better to leave ALL the oil in the ocean than to suck up 99% because we all know that 1% will totally ruin the environment! /s
I heard about these machines just a few days after the blow out and Costner couldn’t get a audience with anyone and of course I was dubious of his ability to come up with something like this. I suppose it just skims the surface and not the entire Gulf basin?
Two reasons. First being the Jones act. Second being they pump 1% back in and the EPA won't allow that (leaving it 100% instead of 99%)
The Dutch were ready to go what on day 3? The government is just to much to blame as BP far as I'm concerned.
That would probably work also but I would at least apply it to gravel roads like “chip seal” oil to get some use out of it.
2,000 barrels of oil per day per machine times 32 machines
equals 64,000 barrels per day removed. How much has your hot air removed from the gulf?
none
His machine returns a bit of oil just like the Dutch system.
The difference is PR.
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