Oil Spill Beach Cleanup

The grains of sand are coated with the stuff, what washes it off from them?

Coated grains are contaminated. Hopefully they will float to the skimmer area. Contaminated sand goes to a processor, an upcoming new industry potential for Yankee Ingenuity.

I would not be surprised to see some interesting contraptions on the beaches. Good opportunity for inventors to show their stuff. Good money for cleanup.

Let us hope it doesn't all go to landfills.

mike k,

Based on what I have seen happen to cars that are on the beach when the tide comes in, the wave action tends to cause erosion of the sand around the tires and the "sinking" of the cars.

I guess a tracked Bobcat would work as long as you kept moving.

What about using steam to separate? You could mount the steam generator on the Bobcat and fire it with some of the crude oil.

Just some wild ideas.

Thanks.

Watching on tv, the oil is in the sand, looks really bad. I hate to see the morons putting one shovelfull of sand in a plastic bag and tossing it in a bin. Does that go to a landfill? What a waste. Do the bags get used more than once? Doubtful. It takes a lot of petroleum to make those bags, too.

Asphalt is made of sand and tar. Oil would probably not mess up the mix. It is mixed and heated very hot by diesel (fuel oil), then spread on the roads and rolled flat.

This contaminated beach sand would be a good candidate for asphalt. I don't think the salt content would mess up the mix. Instead of contaminating a landfill and water tables, it's put on the roads, and locked up in the asphalt recipe. They might even be able to use recovered spill oil to heat the mix.