Simple 'SQUID' Solution Could Contain Oil

BP has received more than 20,000 suggestions for dealing with the oil spill via their Deepwater Horizon Response website. According to the website, "After the caller completes and submits the form, it is sent for triage by a team of 30 technical and operational personnel who will review its technical feasibility and application. Given the quantity of the proposals and the detail in which the team investigates each idea, the technical review can take some time."

That's too bad because there might be some simple, workable solutions in the mix to address the oil spill. Like this one from Steve Dvorak (above) called the Super Quick Undersea Incident Device, or SQUID. Dvorak, whose nickname is MacGyver after the 1985 television series starring Richard Dean Anderson, is a Houston-based inventor, builder and designer, who already has several patents (although not one for SQUID).

I called Dvorak to ask him about his idea, which is so simple and seemingly workable that surely anyone at BP who knows about it must be having a "DUH" moment.

He envisions a giant steel anchor in the shape of a ring, perhaps 48 feet in diameter. It could be assembled at the water's surface, aided by flotation devices. Attached to the ring is a mile-plus-long sleeve made of flexible plastic. Once the ring is assembled and the sleeve attached, the ring would be deployed to the ocean floor. As its being lowered, the sleeve would open up like a parachute, rise to surface (because it's lighter than water) and naturally fill with water along the way.

"You’re allowing gravity and specific gravity and fluid dynamics to do the work," Dvorak told me.

The oil would rise up the plastic sleeve to the surface, where it would drain into an area contained by a boom or a floating pool-like structure. The oily water could be quickly siphoned off by skimmers.

Using flexible plastic is a far cry from BP's attempts to contain or stop the leak with a rigid dome, top kill and more recently, the lower-marine riser package cap, which is a device meant to cap the well and direct the oil through a pipe to the surface.

Dvorak's solution is more flexible. He offered this analogy: “Imagine the well is a rabid, wild cat. Everyone is trying to stuff it into a little cage, I’m trying to throw a net over it.”

Watch the video of how it works here.

I asked Dvorak about whether the ring and sleeve would suffer from the buildup of the icy methane hydrates, which rendered BP's containment dome a failure.

In short: No.

"The specific gravity of hydrates is a little less than water, so they will continue to rise."

Plus, the sleeve is wide enough that it won't cause a bottleneck. The other advantage to this proposed solution is that it will contain gases and keep the oil from moving toward the coast. And repair operations can go on, such as directing remotely operated subs, while the sleeve is covering the well.

"This is such a low cost option, it seems like why not try it?" said Dvorak.

So far BP has not contacted Dvorak directly about his innovative solution. But they have submitted questions to him via second parties and he said he has "heard from people directly down the food chain from BP saying this is a great idea." And if this solution doesn't get used on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, it could be used any number of other rigs leaking in the Gulf or on natural subsea seeps.

"But my focus now is on the Gulf," said Dvorak.