Chung Youl Yoo recently created three concepts to capture the oil from the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“I was motivated to do something when I heard on CNN that what BP has tried was not rocket science but rather simple plumbing solutions,” said Yoo. “This solution may not work, due to my lack of understanding of engineering aspects, but I just wanted to check if this simple method to capture the oil that is still leaking and damaging the environment has been considered.”
- Make a large sized inflatable tube, then attach a mile-long fabric tube to it. There may need to be intermediary rings to control horizontal movement of the fabric tube.
- At the bottom of the fabric tube attach a metal ring.
- Slowly lower the bottom metal ring toward the source of the oil leak. Then secure it to the sea bed around the oil leak source. Place heavy anchors around the leak area and tie them to the bottom ring, or make the bottom ring heavy enough to sink.
- Once the oil moves upward and is captured by the fabric tube, pump the oil out at the top.
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