An Orlando, Florida backyard inventor claims that the Gulf oil leak can be stopped cold within 24 hours. Michael Kennedy says that viewing the leak as a spurting artery helped him to come up with a solution involving compression of the gushing pipe with an adhesive epoxy compound. ?Like pressure applied to a bleeding wound, if the force exerted by the epoxy is equal to or greater than the force of the escaping oil and gas, it should impede the flow long enough for the epoxy to engulf the broken pipe and harden around it,? says Kennedy.
The two-part epoxy compound consists of a resin and hardener, which would be mixed together in large concrete mixers, poured into BP's original containment dome, then lowered to the ocean floor. After reaching the bottom, the dome would be inverted over the leak, using two sets of steel cables attached to its top and bottom.
Kennedy's experiment, which was simulated using ice-cold salt water, shows that the leaky pipe would be immediately plugged by the oozing epoxy, then surrounded by a huge mass of the sticky substance, permanently entombing the leak as it hardens to the consistency of steel. Although the icy water will slow down the hardening process, warm water can be pumped down to the dome in order to speed it up.
?The most important factor will be the consistency of the epoxy at the time of application. It must be thick enough to resist the flow of the oil, but still pliable enough to mold itself around the pipe,? says Kennedy.
Contact:
Michael Kennedy
P: 321.297.3085
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