[mikaronni]

Quote:

Steam isn't a bad idea. I don't think anyone knows how it could be implemented in cars, though.
 

I remember someone already submitted a patent for an engine using steam, I believe. My chemistry teacher showed us an article of cool inventions in the Popular Science magazine. It was a 6-stroke engine. Gasoline was used like a normal engine, but then water would be squirted in. The residual heat from the combustion would be enough to vaporize the water, thus expanding the volume of the cylinder. I don't know whatever happened to this idea though.

http://www.popsci.com/node/9649

 

[colonelkernel8]

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/22/officials-dike-burst-floods-homes-near-tva-plant/
 
A little unrelated, but something to think about.
 
I wasn't really advocating internal combustion engines, more denouncing coal burning power plants. Go nuclear.
 
Quote:

which is still more efficient than an internal combustion engine
 

 

 

[El_Doug]

Someday, we will run on 100% thorium... i hope...
 
Quote:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/22/officials-dike-burst-floods-homes-near-tva-plant/
 
A little unrelated, but something to think about.
 
I wasn't really advocating internal combustion engines, more denouncing coal burning power plants. Go nuclear.
 

 

 

[jellojoe]

I think this is possible. Some hydrocarbons will form azeotropes with water. This means that when the water/hydrocarbon mixture is evaporated, the gaseous phase will be a mixture of hydrocarbon and water and travel as such. It will also condense as a mixture of hydrocarbon and water.
 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Suggestions that the southern states of the USA will be covered in a film of oil are not true. I agree that there may be some kinetic depositing of oil blown in by the winds, in the same way salt can be deposited inland. I used to live in a seaside town and you could see cars covered in the dried salt after a storm.

 

[Fido2]

Quote:

too bad it's us and not BP that God has to help

Not sure if you're mocking or what but anyway

. Some of the reports I've been reading say that BP drilled into a very dangerous area and BP was warned about an underground methane bubble possibly 15-20 miles wide at pressures near 100,000 psi. BP chose to drill anyway. These reports claim the seabed in this area is already fractured and seeping oil a mile or so away from the drill site. This bubble could cause a catastrophic rupture which would indeed be "biblical" in its destruction. So yes GOD HELP US. I'm not sure what BP is calling on.
 
But yeah we fo sho need a cleaner, safer alternative energy source. Maybe Head Injury has some ideas he seems like a genius.

 

[Happy Camper]

There has been quite a bit of dismissal of the idea that oil evaporates. Do a bit of googling and you will find that both the oil and the dispersant can become entrained in the clouds. Could this have been done purposely to thin the herd? Seems USA is in a war of many different fronts. Some by it's own govt.

 

[El_Doug]

Youre almost as eccentric as the guy in your avatar
 
(fyi: physical dispersal via emulsion or suspension != evaporation)
 
Quote:

There has been quite a bit of dismissal of the idea that oil evaporates. Do a bit of googling and you will find that both the oil and the dispersant can become entrained in the clouds. Could this have been done purposely to thin the herd? Seems USA is in a war of many different fronts. Some by it's own govt.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Could this have been done purposely to thin the herd?

I heard Obama and Kim Jong Il discussing it over crumpets at last week's Illuminati Brunch and Social.

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

I heard Obama and Kim Jong Il discussing it over crumpets at last week's Illuminati Brunch and Social.

 

[Happy Camper]

Quote:

I heard Obama and Kim Jong Il discussing it over crumpets at last week's Illuminati Brunch and Social.

 
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10388&page=90
 

Evaporation

In many oil spills, evaporation is the most important process in terms of mass balance. Within a few days following a spill, light crude oils can lose up to 75 percent of their initial volume and medium crudes up to 40 percent. In contrast, heavy or residual oils will lose no more than 10 percent of their volume in the first few days following a spill. Most oil spill behavior models include evaporation as a process and as a factor in the output of the model.
 
 
 

 

[acidbasement]

I was under the impression that the most likely pathway by which hydrocarbons from this spill will travel inland is via migratory birds and other animals.

 

[itsborken]

Tropical storms and hurricanes will disperse a lot more oil inland than bird migration ever could.  As someone stated, it will be mechanical transfer of ocean water picked up into the air and than deposited inland.  
 
Also, as someone has previously stated, crude oil is comprised of many components; it is why refineries essentially are distillation columns fractioning the crude into tar, heavy oils, light oils, kerosene, gasoline, solvents etc.  Every component has a different vapor point in the column and can be extracted and purified as needed.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Not sure if you're mocking or what but anyway

. Some of the reports I've been reading say that BP drilled into a very dangerous area and BP was warned about an underground methane bubble possibly 15-20 miles wide at pressures near 100,000 psi. BP chose to drill anyway. These reports claim the seabed in this area is already fractured and seeping oil a mile or so away from the drill site. This bubble could cause a catastrophic rupture which would indeed be "biblical" in its destruction. So yes GOD HELP US. I'm not sure what BP is calling on.
 
But yeah we fo sho need a cleaner, safer alternative energy source. Maybe Head Injury has some ideas he seems like a genius.

No of course I wasn't mocking.
 
It would be nice if companies like BP realized after this that they are part of this world, and in fact depend on it to make money.  That if the world economy falls, so do they, and if it is strong, and if the natural world is intact, they actually stand to make more money than if they just take from it blindly at the expense of everyone/everything else. 
 
That's all I have to say about that. 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

No of course I wasn't mocking.
 
It would be nice if companies like BP realized after this that they are part of this world, and in fact depend on it to make money.  That if the world economy falls, so do they, and if it is strong, and if the natural world is intact, they actually stand to make more money than if they just take from it blindly at the expense of everyone/everything else. 
 
That's all I have to say about that. 

 
I am sure that the population of Bhopal agree how heartedly with that. But they are still, 26 years later having to live with the pollution caused as a result of Union Carbides negligence. I doubt that BP will get away to the same extent.