Houston firm has an idea

By MONICA HATCHER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE June 7, 2010,

The federal government said Friday it is forming a new technology assessment program to examine the best proposals, after learning BP had only evaluated a handful of thousands of ideas submitted to its hot line

Houston-based Thrustmaster of Texas said it's had trouble finding an ear for its proposal to provide improved surface skimming technology.

“The biggest challenge is to find somebody, an audience, to explain it to so they understand what we have to offer and assess it and make a decision,” said Joe Bekker, president of Thrustmaster. It designs and manufactures thrusters used to steady rigs and vessels in waters too deep for anchoring.

Bekker said Thrustmaster engineers had designed a skimming system using a tanker capable of gulping 450,000 barrels of oily water mixture per day.

So far, response crews using 135 skimming vessels have collected just shy of 370,000 barrels of oily liquids since the cleanup operations began more than a month ago.

A quantum leap?

The system Thrustmaster proposes would use a tanker more than 450 feet long, equipped with the company's thrusters to push it laterally over the water, sucking up the oily surface with three massive skimming devices.

Large separators onboard would remove 99 percent of the oil from the water, which then would be dumped back into the Gulf.