Top Kill, List Your Ideas to Solve the BP Oil Leak & Spill

called BP with my idea: Cut leaking pipe above sand below the BOP. USE LONG LARGER PIPE WITH OUTSIDE EDGES LIKE A OIL DRILLING BIT FOR DIGGING INTO SAND, SPIN OR DRILL THE PIPE OVER EXISTING SMALLER LEAKING PIPE INTO FLOOR OF SAND. AT TOP OF PIPE HAVE ONE OR MORE , SHUT OFF VALVES CONNECTED, LEAVE VALVE OPEN, TO RELEIVE PRESSURE,SPIN OR DRILL DOWN ENOUGH SO LARGER PIPE COVERING LEAKING SMALLER PIPE WOULD GO DOWN 50 TO 200 FEET BELOW THE SURFACE, AND OIL WOULD COME THREW VALVE AT TOP. CONNECT TO SHIP. COULD ALSO HAVE A VAVLE THAT WOULD THREAD ITSELF SO AS YOU DIG DOWN WHEN THE FIRST VALE REACHES THE CUT ORIGINAL PIPE IT WOULD THEN THREAD ITSELF INTO THE CUT PIPE, AS THERE WOULD NO LONGER BE ANY PRESSURE AT THAT POINT OR AREA OF THE PIPE. CHOICES WOULD BE SHUTTING OFF THE VALVES A LITTLE AT A TIME, AS YOU GO UP THE PIPE, SHUTTING THE FIRST ONE JUST ALITTLE AND THE NEXT A LITTLE MORE AND SO FORTH USING 5-10 VALVES OR JUST PUMPING IT INTO THE SHIP

There may be multiple leaks from deeper in the well hole, in which case any solution at the main vent will result in increasing the pressure on other leaks.

So I will return to my original idea (before the series of valves idea): Start by pushing a narrow pipe down through the well hole until the end is below any leaking points. (How it is determined where the leaks are is another problem.) Inside this pipe, there will be a device that can be pushed out through the bottom and automatically deployed. This device could be a rod that extends across the diameter of the well hole, for example, or perhaps a springy ring that pushes itself against the sides of the well hole. It only needs to do two things: wedge itself securely in place and block a fraction of the flow.

Now that we have blocked a fraction of the flow, we can repeat this process several more times to reduce the flow by the sum of all those fractions. Each additional block should reduce the pressure above it, making it easier to add larger blocks.

I have a submission for an idea to guide and forcibly insert a device into the well.

Imagine a radio tower, it has at least 3 supports anchoring it to the ground. Now mount 3 or more anchors to the sea bed, attach multiple cables to each anchor, they would be equidistant from the center of the existing vent. With this foundation, it would distribute the force/weight and be able to wench or pull a device/tower/rod/cap/whatever into or onto the vent itself.

There are several ideas on how to stop the well, but none on how to guide that device over or into the well.

Give me a lever long enough........

And as far as a "clean cut" goes...there's a bolted flange just a few inches away from the sheared pipe segment. Unbolt it...remove the bad segment...now you have perfectly machined surface in which to attach whatever fixture is needed.

I think JuliusBC's idea has a lot of merit. I submitted a similar idea to BP a few days ago. I have a few suggestions: 1) Add more weight to the probe to overcome the oil pressure, maybe it could be topped with a new BOP? 2) Make some of the seals a "knife-edge" variety, in order to cut into the pipe casing and stay put. 3) Make the probe out of a high thermal expansion metal (copper?), embed heaters into the probe, and turn them on once the probe is firmly in place, causing it to swell and lodge tightly. Hopefully then the knife edge seals will cut into the casing to permanently seal.

A relatively simple and inexpensive way to stop crude oil from escaping from the
BP offshore well-head is to explode a "bunker buster" type bomb that can be
lowered to a strategic position just above the opening and detonated by remote control located on a safely positioned ship, boat or low flying aircraft.

The bomb would literally pulverize hundreds of tons of soil and seabed material in the immediate vicinity and gravity would do what gravity is famous for doing, i.e., it would attempt to drive the debris towards the center of the earth and in
doing so it would unquestionably seal the hole drilled by BP operators.

Any loss of sea life in the immediate vicinity would pale by comparison with
the disastrous losses that have already occurred.

How much it weighs is probably crucial along with the taper of the seals.I don't think they have had good success with a clean cut or shear on any pipes they've already done.I think the cleaness of the cut would seriously matter too.It may come to a point we don't get another chance to cut the pipe with success when we finally cut it to the seabed floor...

My idea isn't as high tech as others..Why not clamp off the end and re-route the line.....and better yet not consult with a surgeon(s). They may offer some "surgical" techniques that can be applied mechanically to stop the flow of oil.

I have been in the Oil business for 30 years, we use a tool called a self tapping carrot plug. We plug holes on pipes and tanks as an emergency procedure. These have worked well for us. These carrot plugs are made with supper hard steel with fine self tapping threads. I believe one can be made to fit the BOP with a 5 to 6 " service hole to flow oil upward, once the carrot plug is in the BOP you start turning it to make threads on the BOP. Along with that, about 5ft above you put a relieve valve to keep the pressure down while threading the carrot plug to the BOP. I truly believe this will work! Contact me if you would like a drawing to review. Please HURRY OIL SPILL IS GETTING WORSE!

Perhaps the methane-hydrate crystals aspect could be alleviated by using ultrasound to break-up/dissolve them? There would also be a slight heating effect.

cut the pipe and have a cap with a big steal lid and weld the cap on before you close it and it would be a quick fix, you can also weld another pipe on after and then open it.

How about an insert grommet that can be tightened to expand and apply outward pressure to the inside walls of the pipe. It could work like a freeze plug grommet that you use on a car engine when a freeze plug blows out.I am sure it would have to be enginered with special sides on the grommet that would stick and be very rough to grip the sidewalls of the pipe.The grommet would also probably have to be long enough to grip a large bite into the inside of the pipe.I understand about the pressure at those depthe,but I just thought I'd offer my idea,and I am bt no means an engineer,but I am the king of fix it with what you have to use on hand.......

Pressures at this depth is enormous, maybe as much as 10,000 psi, or more, that kind of pressure will cut steel. No expoxy or paste would harden in time without blowing out first. Placing mud in the hole, I have to wonder if kids are running the show down there. The leaker has to be shut off with a valve capable of handling this pressure. A pipe a little bigger than the leaking pipe and several feet long with such a valve on the end could be placed over the leaking pipe with the valve open. Once the pipe is over the leaker, weld it in place while keeping the valve open to not create pressure. Once welded solid, close the valve SLOWLY to prevent awesome hammer and case closed.

I'm sure this has been thought of, but in case it hasn't her goes. If its possible to pick up the sunken oil rig thats 1500 ft away, it could then be moved and placed over the leak using just one of the massive 4 legs of the rig as a bell cap. It's already down there, cant we figure out a way to put it to good use? Its designed to compensate for buoyancy, has it completely lost that ability at 35k+ feet deep? I think that this rig could serve one last purpose. How apropos it would be.

What about using the original unit that they lowered down to cover the well and pump it full with the concrete that they use in pilings for bridges. The concrete thats sets in water. It may not completely shut the system down, but it should slow it down enough to drill the relief well.

One more thought. Thses pipes are very very long (miles long) carring the oil to the surface as we know because the platforms are floating and held in place by GPS driven devices. Could you not pick up this pipe and at least bring it closer to the surface where it is more manageable, perhaps where divers can get to it or submersibles can work more efficiently?

In addition I wanted to add. The relative "ease" of puting this cupling in place as you have so well demonstrated tonight. You are not working with or against the high pressure and velocities of the oil leak pushing your mud around or as Julius here thinks you can actually stuff a rod in it like putting kleenex in a bloody nose. The cylindrical cupling is hinged at the bottom and closes at the top via hydraulic wrenchs, screw shaped devices that pull the device together. The circular saw is rotated by high pressure hydraulic motors perhaps. Listen if they can cut off the nose of a sunkin Russian Nuclear submarine you can cut through this stuff. What ever you decide to use as a sealant, pressure alone should force the cement into the realatively small seems if you have matched your components to the dimesions of the pipe. This is CRITICAL! The tubes or pipes with the sealent can be attached to the device before you send it down or more difficult injected from above via long pipes.

After observation of tonights video it is apparent that you are able to grab this pipe. Because of the pressures involved you should not cut or snip this pipe at this time. You should be able to surround the pipe with a large cupling hinged at the bottom, sort of like the device you are using but wider and cylindrical in shape. C-SHAPED. The center of the cupling should have a slot open all the way through the center of the device to insert a circular saw blade. The inner diameter should match the outer diameter of the pipe. Once in place you need to use the circular saw and cut through the pipe leaving the blade in place to become part of the "valve" to seal the pipe. The blade itself should be the same diameter as the cupling. Once the pipe is cut, do not withdrawl the blade as it will be used as part of the sealing process. Then inject into the cupling an epoxy cement or some cement like chemical to bond the whole device together and seal any minimal amount of leaking oil. The injectors can also be attached to the cylindrical cupling as well. This will work.

Insert a bag like fire stations use to lift heavy items into the 19” pipe deflated. This would probably have to be built stronger still due to the pressure. Anyway before inflating, insert a "jaws of life" type of 3 way spreader above the bag and have it open to wedge itself into the pipe and can't be pushed out. Now inflate the bag through hydraulics and it will seal the pipe and can't come out due to the wedge above it. From the pictures, the water pressure at this depth is almost equal to the oil pressure and this insertion could be done!

I think we need to avoid any explosives as this could cause the pipe to be damaged so badly to be unable to seal in the future as well as softening the ground and it also wouldn't seal again. This could maybe even cause the ground to break away above the oil reserve below and it would ALL come out at once, a real disaster.

This is just an "off the cuff" idea. They cut off the Blowout preventer that sits above the well which gives them a straight shot down the well. Next they take a huge rod made of what ever metal is applicable, (perhaps stainless steel), and lower it down into the hole. This metal rod is telescoped in design so that it is smaller on the tip and gradually graduated into a larger diameter. The final diameter is fairly close tolerance to that of the well pipe. This end of the metal rod has a series of O-rings that will help to seal the final stages. The top of the rod will basically have an oversize head on it so it will stop the rod from descending any further down the well than is desired. The rod is heavy enough to overcome any pressures being exerted by the oil from below. This would be a permanent fix and the cost should be relatively inexpensive as compared to the all of the other attempts they have made. Once they have a proven method to re-attach to the well and continue pumping oil if so desired, they could re-connect to the giant ring on top of this rod and pull the plug to the well and re-connect.

First of all, think of all of the diamonds they distroy to increase the value of the remaining diamonds....

Now my solution, a giant cone shape device which will be lowered down to the hole and forced into place by an explosion above it jamming it into place this cone will have a central shaft which will direct the oil straight up in a controlled manner whereby allowing leverage on the flow of oil. Little by little the device will settle. As we drive it further down with more force it will secure an anchor to the ground in which we may attach an adaptor either slid into place by tracks propelled by rockets. By the way that's slot of power we have the opportunity to harness, imagine how much electricity that would produce if we were to install a turbine to slow down the oil by turning it. Can we make a success out of it?!

Further if you drill into the same well from a closeby location successfully would that not reduce the pressure to then insert said cone with controlled central shaft. Slowly the leak could be harnessed to controllabe manner. Scary to allow them to do it again and I don't know how long it would take but drilling a cometing hole would possibly allow for manipulation of the underneath area if we could put something into the source to stop the flow of neighboring leak??? Just brainstorming here and I'm not scientist but feedback anyone?

Electric cars . Solar panels on all roofs and windows . Rammed earth buildings . Wind farms . Biofuels galore .

CNN is working with Bill Nye in a similar way. Check this article as well and send your thoughts to CNN.com/iReport.

http://current.com/green/92456304_bill-nye-helps-us-figure-out-what-will-and-wil...

I think a giant tampon would work.I have seen spills like this before.

I think they should create a 90 degree L shaped sleeve with a super thick heavy duty rubber ring attached to one end slightly inside. Then a hydraulic hose attached to the ring that extended to the service. Then float the sleeve, rubber end side over the broken pipe. Inflate the rubber ring with the hydraulic fluid so that it fastens tightly around the end of the broken pipe, forcing the leak through the sleeve. On the other end of the L shaped sleeve attach a long hose that extends to the service, in to a tanker.

I've just figured out the solution to the oil spill if dumping mud on it doesn't plug it up. Jack Bauer just finished his last day of work on Monday, lets bring him in to stop the leak. America once again is facing a great threat and we need Jack's help! And if BP is wanting to shut the cameras off to the view of the leak they can charge payperview rates for people can watch Season 9 of 24. It's a win win situation BP recoups some of its losses we get to see Jack save the day again. Bc i'm sure there was a terrorist plot behind this, N Korea prob shot a nuke into the erupting volcano in Iceland thereby sending shockwaves throughout the magma in the earths core which forced excess pressure to the oil rig in the gulf causing the blowout. Its simple science people! Am I only one that sees this! CTU, Jack we need your help! :)

I thought it would be interesting to see what ideas come from the people of Current.