This video contain the official documentary of Society of chemical engineers.
Watch step by step as WPI Chemical Engineer Marco Kaltofen performs an experiment using actual crude oil from the BP well and Corexit 9500A, the oil dispersant used by BP in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mr. Kaltofen demonstrates how Corexit suspends the most toxic hydrocarbons in the water column by a factor of about 35X more than absorbtion from crude oil alone, which floats to the surface in its natural form. BP used close to 2M gallons of this dispersant at the base of the blown out oil well and at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, allowing this substance to mix into 5000 feet worth of water from the base of the well.
i dont really like chemicals.. but the video is nice and very simple to understand why is that happen..
And BTW, the corexit itself is deadly. END BP.
I was going to post a nice ranting comment but then I stopped and realized; this isn’t my area, I don’t actually have good scientific knowledge of this, how about I not make ridiculous claims and think that I know more than REAL scientists. Maybe everyone shouldn’t be sucked in by the media’s claims and think they know everything and better ways to solve such problems. Dilution = good.
@academiccuriosity Thank you, someone who know what they’re actually talking about.
The gulf is nasty and the seafood is unsafe. Please don’t bring you families to the gulf. The gulf states tourism was given millions of dollars from BP to advertise”clean beaches,safe seafood” True lies. I was exposed to the Corexit. Spray from the air. I have rashes, wounds that won’t heal, dizziness, can’t sleep, hospitalized July 28,2011 for 8 days for rash and still no anwsers from the doctors.
They’ve totally F’d the environment, on purpose, for profit and greed. We need to go to war against BP. If terrorists were to blow up a well and drop that much corexit into the water we’d be over there killing them all right now. BP is an enemy of the US people.
This is incredible. I live in Biloxi and just got off of Hwy 90 (Beach Blvd) and there are people everywhere on the beach. It’s been 1 year 11 days since these people ruined our home and poisoned our friends and family. I’m moved beyond tears and hatred when I look at my 3 year old little boy and realize I’ll never get to bring him fishing at Horn Island like my dad has done with me hundreds of times. We’d catch and eat fish and crabs all summer. Not anymore.
Note: corexit has been known to bioaccummulate. We’ll find small amounts now, but it will build up and store itself in sea animals who eat smaller contaminated prey. Excuse me while I never eat seafood again.
All who work for BP are sick evil bastards and you should all go to off this planet very soon.
I feel sick.
@johnms1 – large quantities of Corexit were sprayed on the Gulf’s surface, in addition to the underwater injection line used at the well site.
@johnms1 – large quantities of Corexit were sprayed on the Gulf’s surface, in addition to the underwater injection line used at the well site.
@johnms1 – large quantities of Corexit were sprayed on the Gulf’s surface, in addition to the underwater injection line used at the well site.
So, here we have a chemist at WPI doing what BP and Nalco, its Corexit 9500 supplier have to have done in their own labs, demonstrating that the ‘cure’ is worse than than the injury. it should be obvious that the response to the disaster was a deliberate KILL of the Gulf ecosystem, its residents, the Gulf Stream. Congrats, England…the winter you are reaping is due at least in part to British Petroleum and its greed. Cheers!
@joecuki
As humans, we have a minute understanding of what damage is. I posit that whatever the effects to wildlife, it would be healthier not to employ chemicals to interfere with the natural order.
@Jcolinsol It is true that there are natural oil seeps underwater. It is also true that maybe we shouldn’t mess with the ecosystem, but need as well as greed have driven to shoddy deep-water drilling with shallow-water techniques, and BP dropped the ball.
Given enough time, the ecosystem would deal with the oil, either through burial or through decomposition. On the other hand, humans caused the problem, and sinking the oil reduces damage to endangered estuarine coastal wildlife rapidly.
@joecuki
Isn’t it true that there are natural oil spills? The ocean floor sometimes fissures and releases oil into the ocean? Wouldn’t behave the same way, rise to the surface and get churned up on the tides?
If that’s the case, then oil spills already factor in to the oceanic eco-system. It might not be such a good idea for us blundering monkeys to interfere with the process, adding chemicals and hoping for some desired effect. It’s probably better to let the eco-system process it naturally.
I disagree with this test as I see in that small glass beaker the issue. The amount of oil placed into the beaker vs. the amount spilled in the gulf was not proportional. The Gulf of Mexico has a estimated volume of 643 quadrillion gallons. The estimated total spill from the oil spill commission report was estimated at 200 million gallons. BP’s reported that they used 1.9 million gallons of disbursement. False test. Also, dispersant went in at the point of the spill not added to top.
@siaic
“Use water soluble paint.” Non sequitur. There’s no such thing as a nonpolluting oil spill.
The oil spill didn’t happen one day and then stop the next. So “skim then dilute” isn’t an option. They were using dispersant to keep so much from ever reaching the top few dozen meters where the marine life is.
I remember the media making ridiculous unscientific claims that you’re echoing, based on bad science like shown. Get an engineering degree and we’ll talk in four years.
@Davelopper It’s called making the best of a bad situation that should never have happened in the first place. Humans need salt to live, but go eat a pound of salt and you’ll die. You obviously think that CLEAR WATER GOOD – DIRTY WATER BAD! Ever think maybe it’s not that simple?
@joecuki you know what?let’s put all the dispersant we got in all the oceans it’s so friendly with the bacterias!!
birds, fishes and plants are dead but who cares?;)
@Davelopper Actually, dispersing the oil throughout the water column provides more mixing with nutrients flowing off the coast, allowing bacteria such as Alcanivorax to flourish and (hopefully) become temporary primary producers of the moderate to light hydrocarbons. I am in no way trying to defend BP, but the gross oversimplification of an entire gulf ecosystem into DISPERSANTS=BAD is poor science at best and deceptively incorrect at worst.
@dunsedog
I don’t know if it’s always been this way because I’m young, but I can’t understand how everyone thinks he has a degree in chemical or environmental engineering and can understand nature without ever bothering to study it. Did BP f up? Absolutely. But the f up came BEFORE the spill occurred, not after. They did *everything* they could to clean up and every single expert in the world agrees. These people missed the South Park joke of “Captain Hindsight.”
@academiccuriosity Thanks, I’ve got admit, everything you say sounds logical, so I wonder why there is such an uproar about this issue. Reading through comments it seems to be the belief that BP are fined by a measure of how much oil is at the surface which, I’ve got to admit, is a pretty naive view of how scientists measure oil content in liquids
Why hasn’t this tested upfront, before throwing it into the ocean?