Morons

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Published by: AlanP on 11th Nov 2010 | View all blogs by AlanP

I have just read an article in one of the technical journals I subscribe to and I find myself completely enraged. I’m sure we have all heard of Kevin Costner the actor. You know, Field of Dreams – Dances with Wolves – Centrifugal Oil Separator.

Yes, that’s what I said. That last is not a movie. Some years ago he decided to do something with his money. So he bought a small research company with a good idea, put $20 million into it and they developed a device for separating crude oil from water. It’s mechanical, meaning there are no toxic chemicals involved. Essentially, although the details are not made public it’s a centrifuge, a spinning device that separates liquids with different specific gravity (density). It works on a pretty significant scale that can remove oil from the water, put clean water back and pump the oil off into a tank and the rate of thousands of gallons a day. Near to 100% purity of separation. Just imagine. Apart from the ecological elegance the oil it recovers would pay for the cost of the deployment. It's a beautiful concept.

The oil companies wanted nothing to do with him. He thought they must have plans of their own and so watched the most recent big oil spill since his device was perfected with interest, expecting to see new technology deployed. But no. He saw tons of toxic emulsifier dumped in the ocean dragging the oil down to poison the sea bed for years. Forty year old technology allied to tugs with flotation devices and people in wellies with spades on the beach. Plus a lot of sea life directly killed by corrosive crude oil.

He isn’t holding anyone to ransom. He simply felt the amount of money he made from acting was silly and wanted to do some good with a bit of it. They could have simply cruised up and down the coast with a few of these mounted off the sides of ships and gathered it all up.

Morons. I despair.

Comments

15 Comments

by Mcallan 1 year ago

Amazing. If that is true Alan then Mr Costner has gone up several notches in my estimation.
by AlanP 1 year ago

It's published in the Journal of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. They check their facts. I believe it.
by Gerilyn 1 year ago

Sounds like a great idea in theory- though , and I'm not saying they shouldn't have at least tried it- it would have taken rather a lot of boats sailing up and down to catch all the oil that was spilt. Still it would, I suppose have helped to clear away some of it, I just don't know whether they would have been able to clear a significant amount to make it worth while- it would literally have been just a drop in the ocean. I'm sure it will be a useful device when oil tankers sink and other such spillages where the amount of oil is at least finite.
by AlanP 1 year ago

Ger: The thing about the IET and this journal is that they don't write chatty articles. They write engineering articles with data, genuinely meaningful numbers. This thing has a simply enormous throughput and twelve or so of them could have sucked up all of that oil and kept pace with it coming out of that well, at least enough to keep it from the coast and if properly managed to within a small area of ocean. It isn't a theory, it has been proven.

But they aren't manufactured. He built one and wanted either the oil companies or the US government to take it up. They didn't dispute the data, they simply ignored him. Perhaps being who he is was a disadvantage, but hell. Sorry. Now it's been pointed out the basics are obvious and if they've solved it, and it looks like they have, hellfire.
by Caducean Whisks 1 year ago

Not surprised, Alan, sadly not surprised. What does surprise me, is that Kevin let slide an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how effective it was. Why did he do that?
by AlanP 1 year ago

Whisks, because he doesn't have the money to build them on the scale needed. He has funded the research and proved the concept. He may be rich, he's not that rich.
by John Taylor 1 year ago

It doesn't surprise me at all. Big companies like high-tech solutions, perhaps because the young-ish men making decisions have high-tech cars. Choices are often made for the most bizarre reasons. On a similar line, one of the problems with the increased private involvement in university research is exactly this: a lack of joined-up thinking, leading to expensive, impractical projects. The free market isn't as clever as it thinks it is!
by sheragh 1 year ago

Why isn't there a law preventing the use of equipment that doesn't benifit nature or the economy, especially if there are modern techniques available. Seems like nothing has been learnt.
by Chocoholic 1 year ago

Don't forget Robin Hood, Alan. The rich guy who fought against the evil establishment. Pity he didn't succeed like his character. Interesting post.
by Gerry 1 year ago

Looks like Kevin's got a great plot for his next film. Hope he makes it.
by Skylark 1 year ago

Alan, is the article in the E&T mag that comes through to IET members? Just asking because my husband gets that and we're both interested in reading the article and wondering which issue it was in....he's not had a chance to read the last few...Ta...
by AlanP 1 year ago

Skylark, It's in this month's issue of that magazine. Although I have done a bit of further digging for some of my responses here. If you use some obvious search terms you'll find stuff about it. It does seem as though it's for real.
by Skylark 1 year ago

Thanks Alan, found it buried under a pile of mail on the kitchen worktop. Very interesting read. I almost found myself hoping that it was too good to be true because it is such a criminal waste not to have done more about it if it is true!
by Tony 1 year ago

It seems it's true, OK, and it's being used by BP in the Gulf. This Guardian news item:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/16/kevin-costner-oil-spill-machines

has this link to the company's own site:

http://www.ots.org/?p=88
by AlanP 1 year ago

Tony, Thanks for that pointer. I hadn't realised that they had eventually managed to deploy the equipment, three months after days after the spill started.

Perhaps they will have more capability the next time. The video of the news conference is very revealing.