Separating Oil From Water

If I was the chump running BP, I'd make a show of buying a THOUSAND centrifuges that could separate oil from water. A THOUSAND! And I would insist that the media write it as A THOUSAND so that fools everywhere could see that I cared. About, well, the oil in the water, I guess.

Kevin Costner is one of my favorite actors, and he's no stranger to scandals involving people hire to give him massages. He and Al Gore share more than that in common (no, I don't think either incident was anything more than a glorified shakedown) because they care about the environment and want to do things.

Costner has a product that--get this--separates oil from water:

It was treated as http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100514/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2081" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-decoration: none; color: #c62606;">an oddball twist in the otherwise wrenching saga of the BP oil spill when Kevin Costner stepped forward to promote a device he said could work wonders in containing the spill's damage. But as Henry Fountain http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/us/25clean.html" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-decoration: none; color: #c62606;">explains in the New York Times, the gadget in question — an oil-separating centrifuge — marks a major breakthrough in spill cleanup technology. And BP, after trial runs with the device, is ordering http://blogs.chron.com/newswatchenergy/archives/2010/06/bp_says_kevin_c.html" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-decoration: none; color: #c62606;">32 more of the Costner-endorsed centrifuges to aid the Gulf cleanup. 

The "Waterworld" actor has invested some $20 million and spent the past 15 years in developing the centrifuges. He helped found a manufacturing company, Ocean Therapy Solutions, to advance his brother's research in spill cleanup technology. In testimony beforeCongress this month, Costner walked through the device's operation—explaining how it spins oil-contaminated water at a rapid speed, so as to separate out the oil and capture it in a containment tank[...]

When I went looking for examples of how these things work, I found this one:

Oil and Water Separating Centrifuge

And this one:

Oil and Water Separator

And I probably could have found a few more, but you get the picture. These devices can handle limited amounts of salt water or fresh water before they have to be shut down and maintained. There has to be a plan to deploy them and a place to put the oil. Can they clean up the whole ocean? No. But they could be deployed in areas where the oil is very concentrated and they could remove oil from the water. That's about it. And that's worthwhile. It's not a fix, nor is it something we should get excited about, but it's better than sitting on our asses crying, so I'm all for it.

Oh, and then there's this--six years ago, Clarkson University researches developed a deepwater oil spill modeling program--has that been used so far?

Time is the enemy when combating an accidental oil or gas release, especially when the leak takes place in water a half-mile deep or more. "Knowing where the spill will surface so you can have clean-up crews in place can mitigate some of the environmental impact," says Clarkson University Professor and Researcher Poojitha Yapa.

As exploration goes ever deeper into the world's oceans to satisfy our global thirst for energy, the production of oil and gas from extremely deep wells is increasing dramatically. Yet, until recently oil companies and governments had no way of knowing what happens to gas or oil if accidentally released at extreme depths of 2,500 feet or more. Predicting how the oil would spread and where slicks would surface was pretty much guesswork. Variables like the chemical composition of oil and gas, ocean currents, deepwater pressure, and temperature influence the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic laws that govern the oil and gas spills as they ascend from the ocean bottom to the water surface. At those depths it can take several hours, or even days for a spill to reach the surface.

It was this critical need to understand the behavior of oil and gas released at extreme depths that drove Clarkson University researchers, under the direction of Yapa, to develop a deepwater oil spill computer model. The project took four years and was sponsored by the United States Minerals Management Services (MMS) and a deep-spill task force consortium made up of more than 20 oil companies. The computer model, named CDOG by Yapa and his team, can closely simulate the behavior of oil or gas from a well blowout in very deep water.

Though the industry safety record has been very good to date, Yapa says, "as deepwater oil and gas exploration increases, our models become extremely valuable for contingency planning, ecological risk assessment, and decision making during emergencies."

Or is this simply too old to be relevant? I found a pretty nifty looking one here, and then I found this nutty one here:

Screenshot of an actual comment, ad links disabled

You read that right--six days BEFORE the BP Oil Spill, some panicky son of a bitch was screaming for an oil spill modeling program. So I'm just curious as to why there isn't a more up to date program in use by the oil companies, and if there is, okay, then.

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