How the Oil Containment Dome Works?

In my last article I talked about the recent oil spill in the Gulf Coast, and its potential solutions. As a follow-up article, I am going to explain in brief how the proposed containment dome (pictured below) will work.

The dome is roughly 4 stories tall, measuring in at 14 x 24 x 40ft. To put that in perspective, its volume is a little over 100,000 gallons. That is only a fraction of the roughly 5,000 barrels of oil being leaked daily. So, how will something so small help contain SO MUCH oil?

By fitting the dome over the worst of the 2 remaining leaks, engineers hope to create a seal with the sea floor and collect as much oil as possible. (Estimates are at an optimistic 85%) They will then connect a long pipe from the dome on the sea floor to a boat above it. The pressure created in the dome as it fills, will force oil up the pipe and into the boat where it can be collected and stored properly.

Sounds good so far. But the problem is that a cleanup method of this type has never been done at such a depth before. The domes were used after Katrina in depths of roughly 1,000 feet, but multiplying that by 5 leaves a lot of room for guess work. Not to mention the fact that even getting the dome over the broken pipe will be a task with a difficulty compared to that of performing open heart surgery...

Also, the dome will only be a short-term fix. And assuming it is a successful operation, there will still be one more leak to fix, and all of the already spilled out to clean up. Long term plans right now are to drill a relief well for the oil but that could take up to 90 days...

I'll keep you posted as more info. comes out in the news.
- Amber

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100507/sc_livescience/howthegulfoilspillcontainmentdomewillwork