Freeze The Oil Leak

u chud tri spel chek

Welcome to the world of text shortcuts. Kids don't need to be able to spell anything correctly anymore. Don't you feel proud of where technology has taken us?

And for our texting buddies:

Nd 4 our txtng budz:

Welkum 2 th wld uv txtg shtkutz. kidz dnt ned 2 b abl 2 spl nethng corektly nemor. dont u fel proud uv ware tech haz tkn us?

It's sad that they are sooooooooooo lazy that they can't even put forth a little effort to communicate.

CU ltr

Always looking for the quick and easy way.I can't wait for reality to hit!

The reality iz that English orthography iz junk. You obviously arent aware uv how much trouble it cauzez our society, so read http://www.nooalf.com to give yourself a chance uv understanding.

I think the oil dizaster haz its roots in the same thinking that maintainz gooft up English spelling: Dont think. Just lissen to authority.

It appallz me that BP iz still running the show down there. Obama shoud hav seized the entire company a month ago when it became obvious that they hav been lying all along. Its Day 55 and they are still playing CYA and pinching pennyz insted uv stopping the leak asap.

I am working with a claw hand and the type was very small. And I was not seeing any designs out there with actual answers drawn out as ideas on paper.

Let us see what kind of design solution you will provide?

First - We are not texting nor are we 12 years old.

Second - Interesting idea but the pressure coming out of the damaged pipe would not yield the result that you are expecting. What you would get at best would be a frozen crude oil projectile shooting up from the sea floor.

That depenz on how frozen it iz.

I dont know how cold crude haz to be to solidify, but if it wuz solid and the pipe iznt totally smooth, it will stop flowing.

Reconsidering the injection idea, I dont think it woud be good to do that alone bekuz it coud concievably stop the flow too fast by creating frozen chunks suddenly accumulating at a bottlenek or curve or any partial obstruction.

I'v heard various pressurez stated, all in the thouzandz, and know the pipe iz 21" in diameter, so its like trying to stop a miles long freight train going downhill with the throttle stuck wide open!

I did a google for freezing point of crude oil and found out that crude oil has no defined freezing (or boiling) point because it is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons with different properties, and every deposit of crude has its own characteristics.

That being said, the freezing temperatures of oil in general are quite low. If not, your car would not work at winter temperatures. One comment I saw was that people in Alaska often leave their cars running, because the refined gasoline may freeze below -40 C. As another example, in a refining assay for one crude oil deposit there were constituents (kerosenes) reported with freezing point below -60 C.

The uneven freezing points of the various constituents means that unless you can sustain a very low temperature sufficient to get the whole volume solid, the escaping oil will be a "slush" that returns to liquid as it gets further from your cooling source.

The high pressure at the Deepwater Horizon spill depth will also affect the freezing point: the water temperature at that depth is described as "near freezing" so close to 0 C ambient temperature.

I think your idea is interesting because (whether practical or not) it is a train of thought that would turn a problem (freezing ie methane hydrate interfered with capping) into a solution. The sort of thinking that uses the existing energy of the problem and turns it to a solution is good.

So I guess the next question in my mind is, what are the properties of methane hydrate (or other crude constituents that freeze at higher temps) that would prevent it being collected or otherwise used to any benefit in this case? What would happen to a plug of methane hydrate if it could be manufactured in situ and applied.

Interesting. I suppoze it woud hav to be at least cold enuf to freeze the majority components. Carbon dioxide iz very plentiful and freezez at -78C, so maybe it woud be good enuf.

Back wen they tried the 'dome' and it got clogged. I didnt see wut the problem wuz; it woud at least stop the spill. Didnt know it had sumthing to do with temperature.

This idea (using liquid nitrogen at minus 300 degrees) was submitted to BP, the Coast Guard and Governor Jindal back in May and the idea along with the method of delivery and a temperature containment system was dismissed.

The rejected method called for the slow freezing of the crude oil and its other components slowly from the outside of the pipe or blowout valve to the inside. This would allow the frozen "plug" to first adhere to the inner pipe surface and slowly build up until the bore was totally sealed off.

H.Bowers

Schenectady, NY

Wut wer the objectionz?