MIT's Seaswarm

Nano tech fabric carried by self-powered robots can clean oil from water.

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-5 1. riverside89 commented 13 years ago

Cool. I wonder how much $$$.
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+44 2. blackd commented 13 years ago

Too bad humans need more then 1 major ecological catastrophe to actually try and develop a adequate means of dealing with it....
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+24 3. sitaauk commented 13 years ago

ok, it collects oil and processes it.. to where? will it vapor into thin air? oil consistence is not only liquid, so it cannot just "steam" off imo.
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+11 4. Ritty5 commented 13 years ago

#3 yeah, I'm with you there, they mentioned that if you heat the material that the oil would leave the material, but to where, a reservoir??? how much can it hold? how long does it take? how hot does it have to be?
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+7 5. soggybee commented 13 years ago

Maybe they use the oil collected to re-charge their batteries... But can you make energy from crude oil? Don't know :S But sounds like a good idea. Think we're going closer and closer to humans in WALL-E
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+13 6. TitvsCaivs commented 13 years ago

#3 #4 #5
You have questions which doesn't even matter considering what they tell in the end :
"A calculation suggests that 5000 SeaSwarm Vehicules operating continuously for a month, will be able to clean up an area of the size of the Gulf oil spill."

So, I don't give a shit about how it get's rid of the oil collected or where does these process the crude oil as long as they clean up the mess BP made.
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+9 7. Urmensch commented 13 years ago

#3
I'd imagine that the fabric would have a maximum capacity and that once reached it would be swapped out with more fabric while the oil-soaked fabric would be taken away, heated, have the oil extracted, and then be re-used later.
It says that the fabric is re-usable and it would defeat the purpose if ambient temperature was enough to release the oil captured.
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-3 8. Usdevildoggmc commented 13 years ago

Sorry I've been drinking again...... So this wont come out perfect, but am I the only one here who knows that the BP oil spill and others in the past were not an accident??? Kind of like 9/11..... and that there is technology here on earth that is around 50-100 years "Ahead of our time".... The only word I can use to describe this MIT video is........Cute....

I think the HAY idea would be way more efficient... I know the thumbs up will know what I'm talking about :D
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+7 9. c2quad commented 13 years ago

So much of the water is polluted and caused many organisms to die ,If this Mit's Seaswarm could help then its good...
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+9 10. MooseDude commented 13 years ago

#1 Never mind about the costs.

Let these Bitches from BP who are to blame for this catastrophe pay for this!
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+8 11. scratchy commented 13 years ago

I have a more simple question , what if ther is a wave ?:S cuz the ocean is not always calm.
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+6 12. cranky commented 13 years ago

The ocean roomba, sucks it up and has no-where to put it.
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+9 13. sux2bu commented 13 years ago

Most of the heavy crude sinks to the bottom so this prototype machine can not collect it. Now they need to develop a bottom crawler to clean the ocean floor as well.
Great technology though.
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-1 14. irishgek commented 13 years ago

0:42 Fail its had always been easy to get oil from water as it floats on top of it. Its were and what its floatin on top of is the problem.

And as many people pointed out, what cost and how well does it work and whos going to MAKE the oil companys buy it , they will just tell the government that they have improved safety and our bad it wont happen again we swear , and they will never invest in something like this unless there made too.
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-3 15. irishgek commented 13 years ago

0:42 Fail its had always been easy to get oil from water as it floats on top of it. Its were and what its floatin on top of is the problem.

And as many people pointed out, what cost and how well does it work and whos going to MAKE the oil companys buy it , they will just tell the government that they have improved safety and our bad it wont happen again we swear , and they will never invest in something like this unless there made too.
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-8 16. irishgek commented 13 years ago

0:42 Fail its had always been easy to get oil from water as it floats on top of it. Its were and what its floatin on top of is the problem.

And as many people pointed out, what cost and how well does it work and whos going to MAKE the oil companys buy it , they will just tell the government that they have improved safety and our bad it wont happen again we swear , and they will never invest in something like this unless there made too.
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-3 17. badboy007 commented 13 years ago

#14
#15
#16
triple post fail
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-1 18. riverside89 commented 13 years ago

@10: As far as cost: If it's too extremely expensive, then no matter how well it works no one will be able to buy it, even if you could force them. But if one of these things can collect a barrel of oil for less than the price of a barrel of oil, people will be competing to get them. If that's the case, then why not get them available?

How big are these things? How much oil can one collect before it has to be drained? They showed a single still shot near the end, but why didn't they show one in action? If they can actually make one of these things now, and it's not prohibitively expensive, wouldn't they show one in the video instead of just animation?

@6: There were something like 5 million barrels of oil spilled in the Gulf. You have to you have a good place to put that much oil before you start collecting it. Otherwise you may end up with another mess as big as the one you're cleaning up.
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-2 19. Dubsteppah commented 13 years ago

well let's do it then.
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-1 20. therob42 commented 13 years ago

After the clean up they will find Sarah Conner