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 heard somebody talking about this on the radio, and while it was acknowledged the process works well, it is slow.
They estimated it would take 185 million years to clean up this spill using these devices. I didn’t verify their math and maybe they were talking about a single machine.
Mostly a PR stunt by BP IMO.
According to what I read on the oil drum,...the light ends of the oil have evaporated and it isn’t worth much...might be used for asphalt.
When I first heard about Costner getting involved in the oil spill cleanup I assumed it was a publicity stunt or just the usual Hollywood busy-bodying. However, when I read a bit more about his company and saw some videos of the separation, I was more impressed. It’s great to see someone like him invest in what looks like a solid technology. I’m glad it’s moving forward, and I hope it does some good. Any oil that can be recovered is oil that won’t be messing up shorelines and critters. If it’s still capable of being refined, so much the better. Offsetting the cost of cleanup with sales of recovered oil would be a good thing, regardless of whether the partier in the White House thinks so.
Good job, Kevin Costner!
The timing has been an issue for the last month. Costner pitched the machines to BP in late April or early May. BP told him the next day to ship one for testing. The shipping, testing, determining manufacturing capability, negotiating the purchase contract, etcetera, are what used up the time.
Apparently the word "iterative" isn't in his vocabulary.
Sometimes people have good ideas, even if they don’t come to market via traditional pathways.
The market should sort it out.
At least Costner is putting his money where his mouth is- you don’t hear his mouth much, unlike most liberal activist blowhards.
I have to admit though, it makes me think about his gills in Waterworld. Could have been part of the modeling (besides Exxon Valdez) that got him and his brother going in that direction?
I became suspicious when our normally in appearance sane media went orgasmic and started calling a Presidential candidate “Godlike” that something occurred in the space/time continuum. However, the fact that Kevin Costner, for God sake, is the potential person to save the coastline of an entire continent just confirms that I have indeed slipped into an alternate universe.
He's trying to sell BP the machines? While inspired to do a good thing, he's invested some 20 million dollars on this idea. God love him he's a capitalist.
To collect the oil himself would not be cost effective (for him). They are required to clean things up and they have the deep pockets.
The Dutch skimmers had something like 10X the capacity, I believe.
mark this down costenr will save the day and ride in with obama and look like he save the day. and march costner around for votes. ive been right every step of the way
Why in the world would that be the case? Both would have to pump water hence use energy to accomplish the task.
The Obastard of course. He gets the oil AND keeps the 20 bil.
It’s going to take him a while to do that, they’re planning to get them operating by late August.
“So then who owns the oil? and is it still refinable ?”
You know, I’ve wondered if there should be a “come and get it” rule, where any spilled oil belongs to whoever gets to it. I’m pretty sure it’s still usable, maybe not for all purposes (probably only heavy crude is left), but separating it has got to be a lot less expensive than drilling for it...I wonder if it would be worth someone’s effort.
A centrifuge uses more energy than gravity.
It might also be noted that the machine failed its first tests...
Whatever you say Boss ... just waitin' on you.
Flotsam ..................... FRegards
sounds kind of like a king-sized cream separator...
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