Those addressing the Oil Spill should have a macro-plan of "crowdsourcing".
And to that end, consider .
http://bit.ly/...
BP & HALIBURTON SHOULD "CROWDSOURCE" SOLUTIONS...
I think they should offer a reward/bounty of $1 million for each machine (that works) pumping only 50 gallons a minute (= 7,200 gallons a day or about 1/30th of the current leak rate) to the surface.
Then for a paltry $100 million or so (accounting for inefficiency) they could have the solution to their problem.
As opposed to the delta in damage they will have to pay if they can't mitigate the leaks (which is likely billions!). -- Think that's too little (per unit) for such a machine?
Consider that some industrial pumps only cost $15k and pump 1,000 GPM!
--- Also consider the DARPA CHALLENGES
http://www.darpa.mil/...
and the SOLAR CONTESTS -
http://www.solardecathlon.gov/
HERE IS MY OWN IDEA FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM...
http://bit.ly/...
Please take a look at my quick brainstorm for a cheap(er) device to pump
oil out of the deep ocean. Tell me why it wouldn't work or that it's
unoriginal. If not "spread the meme" and they can start using it right
away (I'll worry about monetizing it after the crisis is averted).
WHY MY IDEA IS BETTER than the prevalent ideas advocating giant tubes and pumping everything up from the bottom:
- My idea is scalable in number (many hands make light work) and not hindered by custom-goliath size.
And here's the crucial advantage...
- For efficiency sake it's much better to only pump oil up the thousands of feet to the surface as opposed to a "oil & water" mix that then has to be eventually separated anyway.
NOTE - Can we agree that oil is probably most concentrated at the source?
If so, "vacuuming it up" there, at the leak site, is ideal but then the problem becomes: "inadvertently vacuuming up too much water".
My attempt at a solution is to vacuum up and relay in "separating tanks" where water drops to the bottom and oil gets sucked-up through the top. When enough water overtakes that tank then the opacity sensor at the bottom would pump out the water leaving more space for the next round of funneled source to refill that separating tank.
*Opacity sensor could be a simple light sensor (like the safety measure for elevator doors). Placing it across the tank at the proper threshold would make 100% oil read as "no light sensed" whereas a ratio of 10% oil to 90% water might let enough light through to trigger the light sensor and thus pump out to allow more mixed fluid to be pumped in.
Am I at least clear in describing it? Or is it that you do understand how I want it to work and you have reason to believe it would not be effective?
PLEASE REFER TO JPEG -
http://bit.ly/...
Thanks for your consideration and good karma to you!