Prince William Sound OSRI

The Challenge

• The ‘Breaking the Viscous Shear of Crude Oil’ Challenge sought to clean-up after Exxon Valdez oil spill in harsh remote conditions.
• A method to separate oil from water was needed; specifically, oil that had solidified into a viscous mass with frozen water in recovery barges.
• The method had to allow a 1000-gallon enclosed metal tank to be pumped empty within half an hour and the oil had to be able to flow 4 meters to the intake of the pump at the bottom of the tank.

The Solutions

• The winner had no previous experience in oil or recovery.
• The solution came from John Davis, who had studied chemistry at Illinois State and Notre Dame and at one point worked in construction as a summer job.
• Davis proposed a common construction industry technique learned from his summer job that vibrates concrete to keep it liquid during large projects.
• The relatively basic method was adapted to oil barges by inserting metal poles attached to the equipment into the oil which kept it in a fluid transferable state.

The Results

• The solution and expertise of the Solver supported Scott Pegau’s notion that if it could be solved within the oil industry it would have been.
• The vibration method had a similar effect on oil as it did with concrete.
• A Fundamental 20-year-old problem solved in only two months, for a $20,000 award.

All four Challenges run by OSRI were solved, resulting in next generation oil recovery technology, and InnoCentive Solvers were awarded.