References
On April 20, 2017 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was a deepwater oil spill that caused 222,600,000 gallons of crude oil to spew into the ocean. The MTHF Co. caused the oil reservoir to become uncapped causing that much oil to be released. The oil spill spreads out over a distance of 16,000 miles from the coast. The crude oil caused a
great deal of pollution and the toxic levels in the waters to rise. Because of this incident, we had to develop a device that will
effectively clean up the oil spill.
For our deepwater oil spill, we decided to design a fire boom. In our design, the fire boom surrounds the oil in the water and keeps it from spreading. Once the oil is able to be contained, we will burn the oil that’s inside the boom. Also in our design, our fire boom is high quality and it spreads out over long distances.
The fire boom is the best solution for our scenario, because our oil spill is in deep-water. Using this device will be able to contain the oil so that it can no longer spread farther. Also, using a fire boom will effectively be able to burn most of the oil that is far out in the ocean.
Introduction
Lab Setup
In order to test our design, we will first make three different kinds of fire boom that are shaped differently. Then, we will do 6 trials in order to test each one. As we test each one, we will observe and record how much oil is being removed. We will test each type of boom twice in order to get accurate results. Also, we will test each one with water, fire, and without water and fire.
Problem Question:
How does the shape of the fire boom affect how much oil is removed?
Hypothesis: If I change the shape of the fire boom, then more oil will be removed, because each kind of fire boom will consistently burn more oil each time.
Site Map
Design Sketch
pelicans, dolphins, and several species of fish
Environmental Impact Statement/Results
Shape of Fire Boom | Oil Removed(Fire) mL | Oil Removed(No Fire, with water) mL |
Horse-shoe | 2ml | 0ml |
Shoe | 12.5ml | 1ml |
Bowl | 21ml | 0 ml |
Methods
Shape of Fire Boom Tests
Design Brief
Problem Statement:
On April 20th, 2017, the MTHF Company had an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil reservoir was struck and became uncapped and 4.2 million barrels (220,600,000 gallons) of oil spilled from the reservoir. It continued spewing oil into the ocean until July 19th. An oil spill of this magnitude can include ocean acidification and damage to marine life.
Client: BSEE
Target Consumer: Offshore Oil Companies
Design Statement: Design, sketch, and test a device that can remove oil from the Gulf of Mexico.
Design Criteria:
•Design should be high quality
•High quality sketch
•Device must work
•Device must remove a certain amount of oil
Design Constraints:
•Device is due by November 2nd
•Materials provided by teacher and by ourselves
•Money
Design Explanation
The Gulf of Mexico Offshore Oil Spill Fire Boom Solution
Javier Loredo, Charles Deltz, Alexia Bennett and Jeremy Loss
Energy Institute High School
Analysis
Because of the oil spill, the birds died from hypothermia because their feathers would become matted causing their feathers to fall off, leaving them too cold for their bodies to function. The Sea Turtles would ingest the oil and the toxins in the oil, killing them. It affected the water quality by acidifying the ocean. The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna and many species of Sea Turtles are at a threat for extinction because they were already endangered and now they are dying at an alarming rate. Our device was only 60% successful. The oil remaining is still a threat to the environment but, we did everything that we could. We had a very small budget with very little time and limited resources. We could improve the effectiveness of our design and the experiments we conducted. If we had less limited resources, more money and more time, we would have run more tests with multiple designs.
Discussion