From Good Morning America...
Many in the entertainment industry have spoken out about the devastation caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and a few have offered to help, but actor Kevin Costner has spearheaded the development of a machine that can separate the spilled oil from the water, and oil giant BP is testing it.
Although an initial test of the machine failed, Costner said adjustments were made and the device works as it should.
Costner has spent the past 15 years and more than $20 million of his own money into developing the oil separator, a powerful centrifuge that he claims can separate oil from water and dump the oil into a holding tank, leaving the water 99 percent clean of crude.
Costner told "Good Morning America" anchor Sam Champion that he became inspired to work on the device after making the film "Waterworld" and after watching coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
That spill occurred off the coast of Alaska when the supertanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef in 1989. Approximately 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Prince William Sound, causing widespread harm to the local wildlife, environment and economy.
"When I saw everyone on the shore with rubber boots and pitch fork, trying to clean up the problem that they didn't create, you know, the images of the birds, it was all very sad," the "Field of Dreams" star said, speaking of the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez spill.
In the interview on "Good Morning America," he added: "So I went ahead and said, 'does this have to happen?'"
With his scientist brother, Costner started his own company, Costner Industries, and bought the patent for the technology.
"If 20 of my V20s would have been at the Exxon Valdez, 90 percent of that oil would have been cleaned up within the week," he said, referring to one of the models of the oil separators.
The devices, which can be taken to the spill site via barges, come in different sizes. The largest can clean water at a rate of 200 gallons per minute, according to the firm.
Depending on the water-to-oil ratio, the devices are capable of extracting 2,000 barrels of oil per day from the gulf.
The actor and representatives of Ocean Therapy Solutions , the firm that developed the machine, demonstrated the centrifugal device for BP officials in New Orleans last month.
"The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate at unprecedented rates," said Ocean Therapy Solutions CEO John Houghtaling. "They were developed from older centrifuge technology. Normal centrifuge machines are very slow and sensitive to different ratios of oil to water mixtures at intake."
During the initial test, the machine failed to work because the oil had been transformed to a peanut butter-like thickness due to the effects of the dispersants. The machines were then adjusted to handle the thick consistency, and now they work as intended, Costner's publicist said.
Costner hopes the machine will be headed to the Gulf soon.
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