A new product from Carmi-based Elastec/American Marine will be tested next week in New Jersey.
The company, a manufacturer of water pollution and thermal solid waste control systems with international success in oil spill recovery equipment, will test its Grooved Disc Skimmer entry in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE Aug. 12-18 in Leonardo, N.J.
Testing for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is being conducted at OHMSETT-The National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility. Elastec/American Marine is one of ten finalists out of more than 370 entries from around the world.
The skimmer was designed to meet and exceed the competition oil recovery rate (ORR) requirement above 2,500 gallons per minute and an oil recovery efficiency (ORE) of greater than 70 percent (ORE is the ratio of the volume of oil recovered to the volume of total fluid recovered). The skimmer will clean a 50-foot wide swath of oil. The winner will receive a $1 million grand prize.
Don Johnson, project manager and the Elastec/American Marine team leader for the challenge, said "The elegance of our system is that it simply picks up and deposits the oil in a containment system. One of the challenges in cleaning up an oil spill is eliminating excess water when recovering oil. The efficiency of this system eliminates that hurdle."
Domestic and international patents protect the grooved disc technology. The technology is based on extensive research conducted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, to improve recovery rates by tailoring the surface geometry of oleophilic skimmers.
Architecture for the skimmer's hull was designed by Paul Smith, senior principal, marine consulting and finance director for Glosten Associates of Seattle, Wash. Power for the system is being provided by TNT Marine of North Miami, Fla.
"It is definitely the largest skimmer we have ever manufactured," said Donnie Wilson, president of Elastec/American Marine. "Next to assisting in the Gulf oil spill cleanup, being a finalist in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is huge!"
For more information about Elastec American Marine and the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, one may visit http://www.elastec.com/xprize.
ABOUT THE WENDY SCHMIDT OIL CLEANUP X CHALLENGE
The $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is a competition designed to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other sources. It is a one-year competition with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the OHMSETT -- National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility in Leonardo, N.J., USA (www.ohmsett.com). A $1 million prize will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and the highest Oil Recovery Efficiency (ORE). For more information, visit www.iprizecleanoceans.org.
ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization solving the world's Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration (Ocean and Deep Space). Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe); and the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE, and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. For more information, visit www.xprize.org.
ABOUT WENDY SCHMIDT
Wendy Schmidt is President of The Schmidt Family Foundation that works to advance the development of clean energy and support the wiser use of natural resources. She is founder of the foundation's 11th Hour Project and of Climate Central. Her other work, at ReMain Nantucket, focuses on generating a model for smart community downtown development on the island. With her husband, Eric, Wendy created the Schmidt Ocean Institute in 2009 to provide future opportunities aboard research vessels for urgent ocean studies. Wendy earned an M.A. in Journalism from The University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. magna cum laude from Smith College. She serves on the boards of GRIST, The Nantucket Dreamland Foundation, The Natural Resources Defense Council, The California Academy of Sciences, and The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
The winner will be announced in mid-October at a ceremony. Until then, no one knows what the results are. The people running the contest will not allow any information about how the tests went to be made public.
Below is a picture of the unit leaving Carmi for the competition
