Solution to Oil Leak

Actually, there might be a mitigation in there. Something like drapes in place of booms might help with cleaning those undersea plumes.

It's 10,000,000 square feet of canvas.

which could be reused, leaks and mistakes are forever.

You miss the point, clever one. Have you no concept of scale?

And ocean currents? And gas laws? Hydraulics?

You have to think in terms of oceans, not swimming pools, Grasshopper.

How to stop Global Lubrication? (No Idea )

Send Mr Gore on a world trip to solve all other global pollution problems. That may buy BP some time.

How long will it take to sink more holes in the vicinity? (to maybe reduce the pressure.)

(Bad idea )

I believe that they are drilling two relief wells. They will be completed sometime in August, barring hurricanes.

I believe the fumes have gotten to the engineers- because to drilling additional well is absolutely INSANE. This defies logic and common sense. If they thought they could shove a pipe inside the existing well and so stupidly force golf balls, shred rubber and trash,etc. in- then the device I designed would go in and lock into place they select and it will seal 100%- problem solved- so what is the problem? I am resonably certian they have viewed every suggestion as they come pouring in. It appears they have no intention of selecting any public input suggestion for stopping this leak.

It only need a small amount of elementry common sense to realize my drawing is totally self explanatory.

You have just indicated you have no idea what they have tried to do. Public input is so valuable? Come on - most people commenting on the blogs such as this have not even bothered to read reports available on the net.

I know exactly what they are doing- as I have followed this thing since the day it was born. I follow the news media and I also get email updates from the U.S. Coast Guard. I still stick to the fact that BP has no intention of using any public input.. It is all BPPRBS..

This is what it looks like:

Dear ,Thank you so much for taking the time to think about and submit your proposed solution regarding the Horizon incident. Your submission has been reviewed for its technical merits. A similar approach has already been considered or planned for possible implementation. All of us on the Horizon Support Team appreciate your thoughts and efforts. Sincerely yours,

Horizon Support Team

Very Girly, not an arm wrestle in sight, Ky.

I haven't been able to follow the story as closely as I wish, but what I have seen is that all these ideas miss one or more critical aspects in each case. Encasing the leak in ice with liquid N2 would create a very brittle pipe which could shatter under pressure. Screwing a plug into the well will create tremendous pressure as the screw closes. Trying to blow the thing closed could result in an oil flood instead of just a leak, and then we'd be totally screwed instead of just really screwed.

I heard that the idea of the relief wells is to penetrate the reservoir and pump "mud" into it in order to plug the leaking hole from behind. Whether that means the relief wells will produce or not isn't clear.

I do tentatively believe that BP is taking it seriously from an intellectual aspect, trying to do something that works. What they don't have resources to do is to explain to every idea submitter why their idea is too risky or simply won't work.

What they are clearly not doing is mortgaging stuff in order to produce a containment and cleanup effort commensurate with the risk.

As long as we are on the oil leak issue, can anyone explain why they were able to lower a pipe near the broken pipe to remove some of the leaking oil and bring it to a waiting tanker for removal, but have not brought additional pipes there to double the removal process? If one pipe removing the oil was able to stop 60% of the leak, would two, or three pipes doing the sane thing be able to remove the oil at a rate faster than the leak?

Someone on CR4 gave a suggestion that seemed good.

Drop another box, larger to cover the entire pile of pipe, and in some controlled manner freeze the water around the leaks intentionally with a liquid nitrogen system.

The original box placed over the leak had a problem with slush limiting the ability to pump material up for containment. With this attempt, if it can not be pumped, go for a solid freeze(as much as possible).

My science is weak here, please attack with some humor. Maybe even merciful.

OK - liquid N2 one mile down - not an easy delivery in itself. Probably as big of a tech challenge as stopping the leak.

OK if the crimp that is in the pipe now is restricting 20% of the flow then why cut it off? Why not just put a giant bar clamp that can be hydraulically closed on the pipe and crimp it shut. you could then cut along the crimprd area and weld it shut for good. kinda like vise grips on a rubber hose.

Solution for oil leak is to close the pipe by creating cap or pinching.

I like pinch at multiple places and end up with cap on the top. Pinch can be done using microwave energy. One can heat any thing as long as energy resonate. We can activate the soating surface under sea using organic ink and then have ability to pinch . Heating can be done at rate of 3000 to 4000+ oC/minute ramp and can go close to melting point of the tube. Experimental work will be needed to first

1. Develop microwave time which will not be more than 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Will need robat to pich the pipe

3. This pinch will be needed multiple height to have sucess

4. On top finally cap this as added safety.

This is just my thought process.

Dare I submit it again? (see me being barred for over submissions!)

My suggestion is a (relatively) small metal fabrication to close pipe
and head leaks which can be thrown overboard, to reach the leaks.
Located in place, air is pumped to clamp my device (large tongs) on
to the leak. A pipe is then attached to get the oil to the surface.

Please see sketch below.

jt.

Promise... never to submit it again!

Why would you want to use logic, or common sense to to solve this problem?

I'm no mechanical, petrol or civil engineer, but is pressure the problem with your idea? The pressure expelling the oil is immense, being produced by 1 mile of water on top of 1+ miles of earth. Consider just the seemingly easy overcoming of water pressure that we see in video of the gusher. (Or, would it look much the same if there was just a 10 psi differential between the pipe and the surroundings?)

How much "air" would need to be "pumped" to clamp your device to the "pipe," assuming there is a pipe in good enough shape to clamp to?

It seems that the workers are able to get sufficient energy to the site to be able to saw off the existing pipe. If they can bring that energy there, why not use that energy to do the clamping? A motor driven screw clamp would make that plan workable. I'm not saying there are no problems with it, but it appears feasible to do, with the knowledge that we have been given.

Where is my picture?

This design would be able to be slipped over the end of the pipe, and tightened by a robot held electric impact wrench.

If they can make an underwater diamond bladed saw, I would think an electric impact should not be that taxing.

Try reading the various blogs by guys who know the business. http://bittooth.blogspot.com/ is one İ follow. They have on site and are using fancy diamond blades and a diamond wire saw İ hadn't seen before. There is a major problem at the lowest end about the saws getting hung up in the cut. İ read the blades are something like 100,000 USD each. Guess İ don't need to keep one in the garage!

I guess posting pics is not happening today. There is a design of exhaust clamp that is a stainless steel strap that wraps around a jointed section of pipe. It is then tightened by bolts and nuts that stretch across the ends of the strap. Similar in design to a radiator hose clamp, but the strength is not limited by the thin strap material being dragged by the screw thread. By wrapping the SS strap around the solid steel ends, the clamp can be tightened tighter by pulling the solid steel ends together. Any one with better picture loading abilities, just feel free to post my thoughts.

Front

I think this is a small version of your thought.

	Clamp, Band Clamp for Filter Lid SKU: PRICE: $
Clamp, Band Clamp for Filter Lid p/n: WC19-64

Maybe if they ran to Homequarters (or whatever it is called) and got all the garden hose they have! Maybe if they just get a fat lady to sit on it! Maybe they should hold a seance (sp?) and talk to Jules Verne! To bad the guys with the oil company are playing cards and partying rather than working on a solution? They are the ones that know the problems, restrictions etc.

Thank you for your support, much appreciated.

The air tank (bag) is used because:
a) it does not have to be any where near to a leak.
It can be much nearer the surface; and, air is (relatively) easy and cheap to pump.
b) immense clamping pressure can be created by the buoyancy of the tank. (bag)
Which can be easily installed, maintained, increased, or removed, for the clamp.

The design of the clamp, which is (relatively) a very easy fabrication, would
stay insitue, as naturally formed around the pipe. The seals on the inside, with
the bracing (strengthening) ribs on the outside, bonding like a clam to the pipe
it being specifically sized to fit around that particular pipe.

These units can be stock items; ready for use "off the shelf" sized to fit the pipes.
They could have dummy "runs" to practice the fitting of these units, within hours.
They could even have one or two "down there" - ready for such an emergency.
With colapsed air tanks (bags) onboard ships for immediate use. (Gee, wake up BP)

That's my penny worth. Cheap to make, to fit, to maintain, and, it works.
Hope the oil companies please consider it.

jt.

A salesman is trying to sell a Gatling gun to the king, in his middle ages battle;
The king says to him, "Don't trouble me now, can't you see I have a battle to win!"

Although it's too late at this point, but I suggest just screw it!

By that I mean a large tapered screw driven into the pipe bore with hydraulic force.

The screw could even be hollow so that if there were any greedy s.o.b's, they could still get the oil out through it at (G$D forbid) a reduced rate.

But it's too late, now all that remains of the riser is a chewed off stub.

I should add that by hydraulic force, I mean a hydraulically driven rotary impact driver. This would not require a complex anchoring system and could have been placed by an ROV.

I made an engineering suggestion (via a SBIR proposal) to the U.S. gov't back in 2006: http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/12721/Earth-Wind-and-Hydro. It isn't easy being Green. :( - Larry