Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Suggestions: Prize May be Awarded for Oil Spill Solution.
June 28, 2010 – Francis Beland, a Vice-President at the XPrize Foundation, announced today that the group may offer a $10 million XPrize for a smart idea for an oil spill solution to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. In the past the XPrize people have offered similar awards for coming up with awards for private spaceflight or ultra-efficient automobiles.
Oil Spill Suggestions for Plugging Deepwater Horizon Leak Are Pouring In.
Beland was speaking at at the TEDxOilSpill event in Washington DC. Beland said the group has already received 35,000 oil spill suggestions. People with ideas for an oil spill solution can contact Beland at: francis@xprize.org.
The XPrize Foundation’s website does not yet have details of the prize, but several news sources covered the announcement, and you can read articles about the possible Deepwater Horizon oil spill solution prize here:
- Discover.com: Next from X Prize: An Award for Cleaning up BP’s Oil Spill?
- Philanthropy.com: Foundation to Offer $10-Million Prize for Gulf Spill Fix
- Denver Post: Contest for Oil Spill Considered
- Associated Press: Got a fix for oil spill? It may be worth a prize
- Time: Solving the Oil Spill: A $10 Million Prize
- CNN: X Prize’s multimillion-dollar challenge for Gulf oil solutions
- Fast Company: X Prize Foundation Announces $10 Million Gulf Disaster Cleanup Challenge
Articles differed on whether the XPrize Foundation will definitely be awarding the prize, or whether it is merely “kicking around the idea.” The Denver Post reports that the XPrize Foundation still has to raise money to fund the prize. We’ll update this blog post as more information about the possible oil spill suggestion prize becomes available.
Do You Have a Solution for the Deepwater Horizon Leak?
We’ve had over 2,300 people post suggested solutions here at BPOilNews.com. Some of them have been mentioned on other publications, including the BBC. If you’ve submitted your idea for an oil spill solution here, we urge you to resubmit it to Mr. Beland.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
HI I WENT TO THE XPRIZE FOUNDATION,BUT NO WHERE TO SUBMIT AN IDEA OF STOPPING THE OIL FLOW…MY SON THOMAS MATHEWSON HAS AN IDEA. SO IS THIS WHERE I SUBMIT HIS IDEA? IF YOU COULD EMAIL ME BACK TO LET ME KNOW WHERE TO SUBMIT HIS IDEA? IS IT HERE? I CANNOT GET ANY WHERE WITH THE XPRIZE WEB PAGE…IT IS A BIG CIRCLE. I WILL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU AND THANK YOU DDINEYS2@AOL.COM
My suggestion is to meet the spill with strong resistance. A high powered engine to blow it back to it’s origin. Patti Gurley 403 Powell St. Mountain City Tn. 37683 Patti777@embarqmail.com
I have been in the drilling industry for 23 years and also have a degree in fluid power technology. The channeling and controlling the oil spill can be accomplished by using a larger diameter conduit from the BOP to the gulf surface. If the open discharge at the BOP is 18″ diameter (254 in2) then the riser tube should be approx 30″ diameter (706 in2). Oil will flow through the riser as long as there are surface recovery vessels pumping at the same rate as the oil is discharging from the well head. As long as fluid is in motion and in a vaccum the oil will remain contained in the riser tube/pipe. It should also allow some sea water to enter the pipe at the well head. A weight ring, cable lanyards or connector will hold the riser in place. Separating the water from the oil can be accomplished at the surface in the recovery vessel. A large float ring or air bladders on the surface will hold the riser pipe in a semi-plumed position, lanyard fasten to recovery vessel. As long as the fluid is being pumped at the surface the fulid (oil and seawater) will be in a vaccum. Fluid under pressure will always take the path of least resistance.
Work on this exciting challenge as part of a team-
http://www.ideaconnection.com/10-million-oil-spill-prize.html
use robots to clear the debrie field, install a large dome equipped with a pumping manifold, ballast the dome with h20, facilitate augars to screw the dome tightly to the ocean floor facilitate the necessary
hot water connection to keep the methane under control continue to burn off the methane at the surface. remove the existing cap…. the robots will have to disconnect the existing hot water facilities and reconnect to the dome. a second connection to be made from the dome to the blowout preventer or where you had it connected.
Mechanically creating a whirlpool would be a practical way of retrieveing oil that is on the surface of the water. the equipment that would be used would not be of a centerfuge style and would gather massive amounts of oil. At this point cleaning up is the most important and should be addressed 1st. Oil gathered could be pumped in barges or tankers then processed. Or oil could be forwarded to to centerfuges prior to containment.
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