Clean Up Oil With Hay?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by X-Man2, May 13, 2010.

  1. X-Man2 We're under no illusions. Registered Senior Member

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    This is starting to make it's way around online,this guy from a contracting company got this idea of using hay and/or straw to clean up the BP oil spill.It's so simple an idea that its hard for some to believe it would work.Basically the hay or straw soaks up the oil,then you remove the hay or straw and are left with clean water,simple simon huh.Read the article and watch the video demonstration to find out more.At the moment the contractor is waiting on an answer to his request to try out his idea on a large tract of ocean.What say you,will this work?

    http://tinyurl.com/294jyjq

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo

    http://tinyurl.com/269ra8z
     
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  3. soullust Registered Senior Member

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    I hope Bp doesn't think there getting any Canadian hay, Because if they do and they drive up the prices of feed.....

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    They may have a few issues up here with there Canadian firm,s and a hostel take over, fuck them my family is all ready Paying millions for grain, and feed, because of there over priced oil.
     
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  5. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

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    Sounds like something a jewish hay farmer would say LOL...
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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  8. jmpet Valued Senior Member

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    I just don't see the practicality of hundreds of miles of shores and billions of pounds of hay to absorb the oil. Sure it works in a 16" wok, let's see it in action against the Everglades...
     
  9. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

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    Basically a joke saying it sounds like a great profit from catastrophe deal for anyone who is in the "hay" business. Jewish being the type of person who capitalizes on any opportunity to make a buck.
     
  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    What do they do with all of the oil soaked hay? :shrug:

    I think it is a rather interesting idea myself.
     
  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks for the explanation.
     
  12. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    Oil soaked hay = fuel.
     
  13. BenTheMan Dr. of Physics, Prof. of Love Valued Senior Member

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    I saw that youtube video. Let me point out the following: the oil being spilled is called ``light, sweet crude'', which is more like gasoline than motor oil. Oil comes in many different varieties, and is basically just a generic term for ``stuff that comes out of the ground and can be turned into gasoline''. ``Oil'' is a mixture of hydrocarbons (chains of carbons and hydrogens) of various lengths. These hydrocarbons are broken down into shorter pieces when the oil is refined. For example, West Texas Intermediate is typically a bit thicker, and has to be refined more. ``Light, Sweet'' crude is mostly shorter hydrocarbons, and has to be refined less---typically, it trades at a higher price per barrel because it must be refined more. The crude from Saudi Arabia tends to be of the light sweet variety, whereas the crude from Iran and Venezuela tends to be closer to WTI (I think).

    Anyway, the guys in the youtube video looked like they were using motor oil, which is nothing like the light sweet crude that is currently floating in the Gulf.
     
  14. fyrenza Queen of the Dufii Registered Senior Member

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    Yeah, I was wEndering what they'd do with all of the oil-soaked hay, too...

    Light, sweet crude ... It sounds so Delicious! lol

    TBH, I don't think this would work ~ not that there's anything wrong with the basic concept,

    but the logistics of getting it out there, then back again,

    along with all of the processing that would have to be done to reclaim the oil

    would probably make this unfeasible.
     
  15. CheskiChips Banned Banned

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    Racist statements aside, it's nice to see people from the 'top to bottom' engaged in finding a solution.
     
  16. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Assuming the straw solution would work, where are you going to get enough straw?
     
  17. Danny G "Listen.. you smell something" Registered Senior Member

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    would the hay not soak up the water aswell?
     
  18. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    With hindsight the question they should have been asking 30 years ago was "What happens if all the fail-safes fail? What do we do if we have a pipe gushing oil. How do we seal it."

    It's an engineering problem, and it will have a solution.


    The solution needed to be ready for the disaster, not engineered after it occurred.
     
  19. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    A very similar accident occurred in 1979 in the same place.
    Ixtoc I disaster, 3 June 1979 – 23 March 1980
    Accident was caused by failure of the blowout preventer.

    In the next nine months, experts and divers (including Red Adair[5]) were brought in to contain and cap the oil well. Approximately an average of ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on 23 March 1980.[6] Prevailing currents carried the oil towards the Texas coastline. The US government had two months to prepare booms to protect major inlets. Eventually, in the US, 162 miles (261 km) of beaches and 1421 birds were affected by 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil.[6] Mexico rejected US requests to be compensated for cleanup costs.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I
     
  20. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Or perhaps not, if these figures are correct

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    This is not drilling a well and then pumping-up the oil. On the sea bottom which is 5,000 feet below sea level the pressure by the water is already 150 bar. To spuw oil in it, is must have a pressure of at least 150 Bar or 2,200 psi. This is comparable with the pressure in an oxygen cilinder for welding. If the valve of a compressed air cylinder is broken or sheared off, the released pressure will cause the cylinder of 190 lbs to act like a rocket, shooting away quickly


    http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=25602
     
  21. BenTheMan Dr. of Physics, Prof. of Love Valued Senior Member

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    Seldom have I seen such insight in these fora...
     
  22. wellsiteguy Registered Member

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    If you do some quick math, it looks as though the guys in the video used about a litre of oil and a pound of hay.

    A barrel is roughly 200 litres, so 200 pounds of hay, or roughly four to five bales. That would mean 25,000 bales per day to soak up the spill.

    The trick would be to blow those 25,000 bales on the ocean at the point source of the spill, before it began dispersing.

    The sweet light crude involved will do a lot of evaporating in the summer heat of the Gulf. The heavier, stickier fraction, would be bound to the hay...and because it becomes a "sargasso" of floating gunk, it wouldn't drift too far, unlike the streamers of crude seen blown by the wind.

    My question is: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU OFFICE GEEKS WAITING FOR???????

    I see this kind of stultifying inertia throughout the oil patch, where VP's meet and hash it over, and do nothing. The field people, of which I am a member, sit there, waiting for the go-ahead, probably with everything lined up should the signal be given.

    Yes, the hay would soak up water. But that's not a reason NOT to at least TRY. It was used, much too late, in the 1969 Santa Barbara spill.

    Again: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR????
     
  23. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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