Could seaweed stop offshore drilling accidents?
MAY 10, 2010 13:12 EDT
ENVIRONMENT | GREEN BUSINESS | MARINE SCIENCE
http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/05/10/could-seaweed-stop-offshore-drilling-accidents/
Dr. Gunter Pauli, PhD, MBA, is an entrepreneur and founder of
the ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives). He
is the author of 17 books and 36 children’s fables. His latest book The
Blue Economy
http://blueeconomy.de
contains one innovation outlined in this article. —
One wonders if the oil industry will ever learn.
When in the summer of 2006 holes in pipelines forced British Petroleum to
shut down a major part of its network in Alaska, oil prices shot up to
record levels.
The analysis of the problem unveiled that microbial induced corrosion
(MIC) contributed to a dramatic domino effect.
Microbes are known to cause corrosion. Concentrated and purified metals
are easy energy sources for bacteria, which consider this as their
equivalent of fast food. After the insurance paid most of the
environmental clean-up costs, and consumers footed the bill for a huge
premium on the market, the industry reverted to improve a model that has
proven to fail.
Why does a $1 billion clean-up bill not force the oil sector to embrace a
portfolio of fundamental shifts in thinking and doing? It seems an
obvious opportunity to launch an aggressive search for an out-of-the-box
solution and dedicate the relevant budgets that build on new modus
operandi, already well founded in science.
Industry has the power to move breakthrough solutions quickly through the
mazes of government approvals.
The main obstacle to fundamental shifts even in the wake of tremendous
risks to the business and the environment seems to be the core business
approach based on core competence.
Companies are pressed within a straitjacket known as supply chain
management, with outsourcing and a continuous drive to reduce costs,
especially overheads. Innovations that sit square in the supply chain
logic do not have a chance, even when these are proven to work.
The fossil fuel sector operates under stress. Oil, gas and water exit
together from a well and are separated out.
Seawater, fresh water and natural gas are pumped back down to help
maintain the pressure to pump the hot oil to the well heads. Microbes can
enter anytime. These bacteria cause corrosion, one of the main reasons of
failure and one of the X-factors in maintenance.
This jeopardizes the long term viability of the oil and gas
infrastructure. Microbes eat their way through nearly any layer of
metal.
The typical wear and tear of metals is compounded with the chemistry of
the smallest living cells on earth. The only option industry embraces is
harsh chemistry and mechanical force, which also deteriorate the
infrastructure.
Industry knows that bacteria cause problems. Pipes made from carbon steel
can not resist the acidity released by the bugs. The installation of
weldable chromium, nickel, copper and rare earth metals offers alloys of
steel that resist the corrosion caused by colonies of bacteria, known as
biofilms.
Unfortunately, these corrosion-proof pipelines are simply too expensive.
The decision to stay with the existing installations, especially those
that have already been sunk into the ocean bed or in delicate tundra and
rain forest, force the industry to shut down operations regularly and
flush the system with bactericides.
If seaweeds would have chosen the same chemical annihilation technique as
industry applies, then the seaweeds would never have survived.
Bacteria simply outnumber all other life on earth, and since they do not
have a nucleus with DNA, they mutate whenever under stress. Bacteria
colonize, sense a quorum, and take over their hosts even in the presence
of killing chemistry.
Instead, some seaweeds reverted to a smarter tactic: render the bacteria
deaf. While this sounds simple, it works.
Bacteria communicate through small molecules and the seaweeds
successfully developed one of their own known as the furanone that bt
blocks the receptor of the bacterial cells.
Since the individual bacteria cannot “hear or see” each other, they
cannot create a biofilm. This effectively blocks the creation of biofilm,
that stops all coordinated activities, including corrosion.
The Quorum Sensing Inhibitor Chemistry (QSIC) was only discovered two
decades ago. It has been well described by Professors Peter Steinberg
(USA) and Staffan Kjelleberg (Sweden) both academics at the University of
New South Wales, in Sydney (Australia).
QSIC has proven its effectiveness against a wide spectrum of bugs and
even fungi. The oil industry has been exposed to these findings. Now that
a new big clean-up job is required dealing with 5,000 gallons a day
dispersed into the Gulf of Mexico, time has come to become innovative
with the mess and go beyond the burn, chemically disperse and clean-up
the beaches approach.
Time has come to reflect on the root causes of these disasters and accept
that corrosion and bacteria are a fact of life. Society does not need an
antagonistic approach to the errors of the past, and the unintended
consequences of today. Society needs an industry with an open mind that
searches for dramatic shifts in the business model, which go beyond the
framework defined by supply chain management.
This is the core of the proposal of The Blue Economy. If we are prepared
to embrace hundreds of fundamental innovations, we can design business
models that respond to the basic needs, and uses what we have, including
these marvelous solutions that ecosystems provide.
The survival of the Delicea pulchra against the onslaught of bacteria
could be a starting point in this debate for the oil and gas
industry.
_____________________________________
Photo shows pelicans sitting on pilings along the Dauphin Island Parkway,
Alabama May 5, 2010. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Dr. Gunter Pauli, PhD, MBA, is an entrepreneur and founder of the
ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives). He is the
author of 17 books and 36 children’s fables. His latest book The Blue
Economy contains one innovation outlined in this article. —
One wonders if the oil industry will ever learn.
When in the summer of 2006 holes in pipelines forced British Petroleum to
shut down a major part of its network in Alaska, oil prices shot up to
record levels.
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ABOUT GUNTER
"Gunter Pauli, PhD, MBA, and entrepreneur is founder of the Zero
Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) Foundation and author of The
Blue Economy: 100 innovations to generate 100 million jobs in 10 years,
an exploration of alternative business models inspired by nature. He is
also author of 16 other books published in 21 languages, and 36 fables
that bring science and entrepreneurship to children at an early
age."
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