Marine Electronics
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The Horizon oil slick disaster, if there were anything to learn from it, it would have to be that the response time for one has to be quick. And this means that preparations have to be made before hand. For the most part, the most advanced marine technology is just making its way to the gulf. Advanced image sensing devices have been mounted on airplanes for reconnaissance missions over the oil slick. There they will fly along the vast coastlines of the Southeast gathering data on the movement of the tentacles of the oil slick. Once there, the light based technology will also look for and map oil covered beaches and oil covered foliage. Meanwhile, underwater gliders have been deployed to follow the oil under the water. These vehicles will follow the oil using sonar and acoustic imaging techniques. All the while, GPS satellites will give the big picture of the oil slick beast.
The only problem with much of the latest technology is that it is relatively new and for the most part has not been fully commercialized and integrated. Regardless, the demand for the most advanced marine electronic technology is expected to rise because of the oil slick. Two forces that may go to work here are new government regulations and pressure from the oil insurance companies. What the government and the insurance companies will demand from the oil drilling companies and how they will enforce these regulations is, however, an open question.
Ironically though what might give the government the ability to monitor oil-drilling operations, enabling them to enforce regulations, is advanced marine technology. According to reports from the White House, the administration already deployed underwater robots that identified the location of three leaks on the 5,000 feet of underwater pipes. The White House has also reported that all together 10 remotely operated vehicles have been deployed in the BP oil disaster.
For now though, what will probably come to center stage is the wide range of technologies that have been developed to remove oil and remove it cost-effectively. ACT Clean Technologies, Inc. (Pink Sheets: ACLH), and Enviro Voraxial Technology, Inc. (OTCBB: EVTN) both report that they have technology that will help clean up the oil spill. According to Enviro Voraxial, their emergency oil response system, the Voraxial Separator “is a unique in-line, continuous flow separator capable of separating large volumes of oil and water with greater efficiencies than solutions currently deployed.”
Over at ACT, Russell Kidder, CEO, reported that his company’s oil spill cleaning technology “is the very same technology that has been demonstrated to enhance oil shale production in existing wells. The technology actually improves the separation of oil from other materials and fluids, thus resulting in a superior methodology using less energy and improving results.”
