Concrete Ice Maker Doesn’t Work
Do ice cubes float? Does your refrigerator and air conditioner work by compressing gas and then allowing it to expand?
McClatchy reports on the latest BP screw-up Gulf oil spill setback: First effort to place dome falls short
A mammoth white containment dome placed over a leaking oil well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico had to be moved away from the well Saturday after ice-like crystals clogged the massive steel-and-concrete box.
The buildup of crystals also made the box too buoyant, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said.
“I wouldn’t say it failed yet,” he said. “What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn’t work.”
This is why I wanted the pipe already connected so the oil flow wasn’t constrained in any way. The oil is being pushed out of the well by gas pressure. When the pressure is reduced by exiting the broken pipe, the gas expands, drawing heat to itself as it expands, the process used for refrigerators.
Update: Hydrate crystals are ice crystals with something trapped in them, in this case gas, like a methane slushy. In ancient times when Cokes were a nickel and kept in water filled coolers with ice floating, you often saw the process when you opened the bottle, ice crystals formed around CO2.
