[ale] OT - Have you seen this almost trivial solution to the oil mess?

[Greg Clifton]

Tom,

I certainly agree that the use of hay/straw is not a complete solution, but
it may be a worthwhile and relatively cheap bioremediation measure as a PART
of the solution. My guess is that it would be most beneficial close to shore
so that the oil is absorbed/adsorbed by the straw before it has a chance to
contaminate the sand on the beaches and the mud and such in the estuaries.

As to what to do with the "oil-logged" straw? Probably nothing, the surface
area of the straw will provide lots of places for microbes to colonize and
consume the sequestered oil [food source] and the straw through natural
biological processes. There are microbes in the water that consume oil
already, but they can be much more efficient if they have a medium to grow
on. Think of it as "Petri straws" rather than dishes.

GC

On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Tom Freeman
<tfreeman at intel.digichem.net>wrote:

> On 05/24/2010 09:07:57 AM, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> > On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 08:58, Tom Freeman
> > <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
> > > One of the clearest rebuttals to a simple solution that I've seen
> > to
> > > date for virtually any situation. If we could all get in the habit
> > of
> > > checking ideas this way, we might be in better shape.
> > >
> > > OTOH, while I don't think hay is "the solution", I suspect that use
> > of
> > > hay to chase after the oil has some value, and should see some use.
> > > Exactly where is another problem, for another post, and possibly
> > > another venue.
> >
> > Perhaps I didn't catch it, what were the costs/efforts associated
> > with
> > harvesting/storing/shipping/distributing the hay?  Hay seems
> > wonderful
> > if it get's there on it's own. ;-)
>
> Well, that and what do you do with it after it is "full" of oil. And
> salt water. Collect and burn? Collect and bury? Extract oil and burn
> hay? I doubt that the hay would be reusable at that point. And
> admittedly, those type issues were not addressed either by myself or
> the post I responded to. Quite roughly speaking, however, use of hay
> will result in 2 lbs of material to work with for every lbs of oil
> slick retrieved. Plus that material will not be especially easy to work
> with, since it will neither pump nor be an easily filterable solid.
> Again, not explicitely noted.
>
> Of course, these analyses ignore the effects of diverting a percent or
> three of the nation's hay supply to oil chasing, and the logistics of
> getting that much hay transported in the first place.
>
> What I was trying to do with my original post was to complement Quentin
> for actually running down some of the facts and running some estimated
> numbers to get at crude ballpark figures, as opposed to the usuall
> debate tactics of simply snearing at the idea.
>
> Ok. My bad for not expanding and expounding with greater clarity, for
> which I appologise. I should know better. Plus, I should do a better
> job of looking up and checking more of my data (sorry but I'm not going
> to today, I've got some oil based product (gasoline) to combust in
> cleaning up a back yard).
>
> I will stand by the statement that the use of hay probably has a place
> in the overall effort regarding the oil spill but is _not_ truely a
> cure regardless of how popular the idea is.
>
>
> >
> > -Jim P.
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