I gotta say that I'm pretty impressed with Kevin Costner's machine.

[trumad]

Hey--every little bit helps.

Check the video:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1520929307?bctid=90936094001

[secondwind]

1. simply amazing. K&R

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Would a IP rights wonk explain - isn't this now in the public domain?

While the video goes on and on about it's "patented system" - if it was patented in 1993, wouldn't anyone be able to make these things now?

[closeupready]

4. Patents can be renewed sometimes.

Also, if they made a substantive change to the 1993 system and patented this new 'patented system', they would now own this 'patented system' until the patent runs out.

[Schema Thing]

5. a utility patent last 20 years.

I feel sure this is not the only oil/water separation tech out there, however, though it appears to be a good one.

[MiniMe]

3. BP ordered about 30 of them

But I'm not sure how it will work after the dispersants are mixed into the equation.

[Froward69]

6. It seems to me

it would have been a better investment than dispersant. Then again I speculate BP had tons of dispersant they couldn't use elsewhere in the world. so it is cost effective to use all the dispersant first before investing in ecologically safe measures.

dispersant sinks the Oil to the bottom or into a column, where it is more difficult to retrieve. possibly even more difficult if not impossible to separate the Oil from the water because of the added dispersant.

Again profit first with BP. environment be damned.