GAWDA Edge Blog 
  

We’re now about 79 days into the BP oil spill disaster in the gulf coast, and still no comprehensive solution has been developed to deal with the mess. The cleanup has gases and welding written all over it and many people are drawing on the industry for solutions. Ideas are pouring in, but is BP really listening?

An article in the Seattle Times reports that 120,000 ideas have been submitted to BP. Somewhere around 425 ideas in total have gone to testing. Most ideas, says Michael Cortez, a petroleum engineer at BP, are downright impossible or impractical.

The main task BP faces is cleaning up the oil that has spilled. The other large task is securing the leaking pipelines.

GAWDAwiki recently reported that GAWDA member WESCO is testing the use of carbon dioxide to make the oil easier to pick up. According to WESCO Executive Vice President Paul Dutruch, “Our goal is to make the cleanup easier. The easier it is, the faster things will return to normal.”

Welding & Gases Today reader Ray Stone expressed frustration at being stonewalled by BP and the Coast Guard when trying to put in his two cents. His idea is to “spray liquid nitrogen on the front edge of spill.” He added a request to pass the idea along to “people who care about cleanup, not their bottom lines.”

In a Walton Sun editorial, former physics professor Dr. Ernest Zebrowski suggests using liquid helium to temporarily halt the flow of leaking oil long enough to pump in conventional concrete plug. After waiting several weeks with no response, Zebrowski turned to the Sun in hopes of finding an open ear.

The echoing sentiment seems to be: let’s work together to get this thing cleaned up and not worry about making money. BP is understandably wary about signing any agreements, so maybe it should think about taking advantage of the goodwill out there.

Whether it’s welding booms and stopgap structures or using liquid nitrogen or CO2, there just might be an answer out there to tackle the disaster at hand. But for every innovative thinker, the question remains: who is listening?

Most of us are probably aware of the role welding plays in modern art. Welded sculptures are a hot ticket item at any museum of modern art and many distributors have probably sold equipment to an aspiring Michelangelo at some point or another. Recently, however, compressed gases have begun to make their name more prevalent in the realm of sculpted art.

Artists have begun taking jellyfish that have died by natural means and preserving them in sculptures using liquid nitrogen. The jellyfish are arranged in the desired position then frozen using the nitrogen. They are then preserved in a resin mold where they harden. The natural phosphor within the jellyfish causes it to glow in the dark. They are typically lit from below with an LED light to add to their radiance. These sculptures have become a trendy art form in Hawaii and are gaining popularity across the rest of the country.

So next time someone comes into your distributorship with a dead jellyfish in a jar, don’t be alarmed, simply find them some compressed nitrogen and help them on their way. Who knows, if you cut them a deal you might even get a free sculpture to spruce up your showroom.