A Look at Kevin Costner’s Role in The Gulf Coast Oil Spill Cleanup

In a role that many did not expect to find Kevin Costner in the embodiment, the screen star of the cult classic “Bull Durham” and the Oscar-winning “Dances with Wolves” has taken part in the cleanup of the nation is worst oil spill. The Hollywood super star is part of a cast of thousands who have launched their talent to remove the black oil out of the BP and near the coast of Louisiana. He cannot win an Oscar for this role, but he might win the eternal gratitude of the residents of the beleaguered Gulf Coast. 
  
Many would-be inventors have approached BP with their discoveries that promise to remove effectively the millions and millions of crude oil has leaked from the bottom of the ocean from wellhead first discovered on 22 April this year, two days after the deep-water oil well exploded Horizonte, possibly as a result of a “dangerous culture of permissiveness” currently being investigated by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Many of the devices and techniques are presented for considerations have great potential while many more have been rejected. 

According to a report in the U.S. Today, BP has received over 80,000 suggestions on how to address the spill, company spokesman Mark Proegler said. Proegler said BP has a team of about 40 people to sift through ideas. About 250 of the ideas have done what he calls the “final evaluation stage, which includes an analysis of the proposed technology.” centrifuge Costner was one of 250 who arrived in this phase. (Ideas pour in trying to help manage BP Gulf oil spill of Brian Winter, USA Today, 6/10/1910) 

One of the keys to a successful method to clean the oil in the ocean water would be a process that adds nothing to the already huge carbon footprint created by the stroke. Too many products use a material that absorb oil, but then has to be dumped into landfills already-full once they are used. Costner invention is different. The centrifugal action of its product, the V20 is capable of separating and distributing oil and water, leaving behind any products. Centrifuge technology, shown in this video, dating back to early 1800. Similar technology is considered by BP as one of the 250 who have reached the stage of final evaluation comes from Beach Clean Technologies, a Houston-based company that has “the mechanical means for separating oil from the sand. 

About 20 years ago, researcher David Meikrantz Idaho National Laboratory (IHL) has developed technology that Costner and his partner John Houghtaling been granted the right to manufacture and sell to BP. Meikrantz, who originally tried to use the device to separate the components of nuclear substances, worked with Costner and Houghtaling to further develop the device after IHL licensed Costner’s company, Ocean therapy solutions in 1993. Costner is said to have invested nearly $ 25 million of his own money to develop this product centrifuge. 

Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS) developed five models of centrifuges, the smallest, the V02 is ideal for laboratory or pilot plant use of process pumps 0.5 gallons per minute (gpm) to its largest product, the V20, which pumps up 200gpm. Is the V20 to be used in the Gulf and is capable of cleaning “to 210,000 liters of water per day and 2,000 barrels potentially could eliminate oil over a period of 24 hours.” (BP to use the Idaho laboratory technology in the Gulf oil spill, the history of AP, 6/17/10) 

There is little precise information is given on their website, but it seems that Costner has been associated with Houghtaling several years before the disaster of the PA. Oil spills and leaks before had begun to have a negative impact on the Gulf Coast, where the employer sought Costner of New Orleans. According to the website of the OTS “Houghtaling was looking for a solution and Costner had spent the last 15 years investing in a centrifuge technology that allow the oil industry to operate safely, without endangering the environment by oil spills . 

At one point in his life when aging stars are doing more directing and producing films act, Costner has created a role for itself that not only deviates from this model, but could gain recognition with his Oscar-winning proceedings.; A role not only to gain prestige, but it could be a part of the solution to environmentally harmful off-shore drilling.