Will Kevin Costner Save Us from the Gulf Oil Spill?
I know what you’re thinking.The answer to that headline must be “No, of course not! Are you crazy. Have you seen Waterworld?” Yes I have, and it’s pretty bad. But maybe that movie gave him and his brother the idea for the device above, which Costner claims can filter up to 97% of oil from water. Costner’s brother is a scientist, and together they’ve been pursuing this project for 15 years. As you can see in the video above, the machine separates water from oil through centrifugal force – it’s not explained in the video, but we can assume the machine separates the liquids out through their different weights.
Costner and his team would like to test out their machine in the open waters and see if it can be of help. The largest version of the device can filter 200 gallons at a time. That’s almost nothing compared to how much oil is leaking into the ocean every day, but if the science behind the machine turns out to be solid, it could very well lead to a solution.
Source: Treehugger via Gizmodo.
