What is the mud made of and how safe is it ?

[Iwasthere]

Of course I realize that it is better than the toxic oil, but how long can it be be pumped in when it is coming out at the same rate as the oil was earlier.
1. Could the mud cause its own enviromental issues (mud kills coral and wildlife at shorelines I know).

2. Do they have unlimited mud supplies?

3. Why is the pressure NOT dropping yet? or at least it appears to be a very slow drop, imo.

4. How long can the pipes handle the mud before it begins to degrade the pipe walls? Causing Possible numerous pipe failures.

5. Why aren't they using thicker mud to slow it down already?

6. Why does it keep changing colors, often showing two distinct colors, is the white stuff an added chemical from the ship(s)?

Almost seems like this is all for show to me. I wish that the engineers that were twittering were still there.

[slackmaster]

1. What evidence do you have that the pressure is not dropping yet?

Please share your source.

[NM_hemilover]

2. What is mud made of ??

Did you go to Texas A&M ? You know why the football team drinks warm water right ?.............the guy with the ice water recipe graduated.

[Gman]

4. LOL!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Bazinga!

:rofl:

[Iwasthere]

9. Okay then, where do they get the dirt? What is the composition? Is there sand in it?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Check out the link I provided in post #10

Bill Nye explains it all very well in plain english.

[Catherina]

20. Thanks. I've also been wondering about that n/t

[NM_hemilover]

18. Fairy dust and gumdrop wishes,

It was just a joke, even an Aggie would have gotten it.

[Individualist]

12. Fail.

If you're assuming this mud is just a lot of dirt that BP just scooped up somewhere, you're the one who must have gone to A&M.

[NM_hemilover]

19. Pssssssst...it was just a joke. And ice is just frozen water..

[Lucky 13]

16. BWAHAHAHAHA!

[Catherina]

21. Nevermind. Just not worth it. n/t

[NM_hemilover]

22. It's OK to chuckle, it was just a joke.

[Catherina]

23. Ok

I don't have much of a sense of humor these days. Sorry. Thanks

[librechik]

3. It is mostly dense clay with some emulsifiers to make it foamy.

Like most of the dispersed oil, the released mud will settle to the bottom

[CreekDog]

5. I feel bad for anybody working hard on this who reads "seems like this is all for show to me."

because if a fix doesn't work within an arbitrary amount of time, set not by anybody with expertise on it, but instead by you...well then you are being tricked.

i have my criticisms of the way the oil spill is being handled, but just writing people off like this based on arbitrary things...i don't want you judging my work.

[Blue-Jay]

6. How is babby formed?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. The guys over on The OIl Drum ---

say the "mud" is a not so happy product that can be as toxic as the dispersant being used. It is not simply earth and water mixture - much mroe complex.

[Iwasthere]

11. That is what I suspected

Thank you very much for that answer.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

15. Here's the part of the thread that discusses it --

AlanfromBigEasy on May 27, 2010 - 10:42am
I am happy with a metastable "dynamic" seal that dramatically reduces the oil polluting the GoM.

Can this be maintained for a couple of months till the first relief well is completed ? Basically, I just want the oil stopped. Creating a more elegantly engineered solution has little appeal if it risks a new eruption of oil.

Alan


TJ on May 27, 2010 - 10:47am
Dude. It's pretty good odds that the mud they're using is just as toxic as the crude. Maybe more so. I do know there are disposal issues for used mud.


Interested_public on May 27, 2010 - 11:00am
Most of the mud should settle on the bottom don't you think? Better than the oil flowing up toward the surface.



TJ on May 27, 2010 - 11:11am
Interesting question. I read it's an oil-based mud; I'd guess the diesel oil fraction would eventually separate out and rise to the surface. Having a lot of barite sit around on the ocean bottom might be problematic, even though it's low solubility.


rainyday on May 27, 2010 - 12:17pm
Suttles said at yesterday's briefing that they are using non-toxic water based mud.


aliilaali on May 27, 2010 - 11:05am
Alan

fella....if there is one thing you don't want in the ocean more than you don't want the oil in the ocean is that drilling mud ......

This is super heavy mud with Barite in it ....Barite is radioactive (not harmful) but enough to stink and warm up the containers ......it is absolutely nasty ....I am a offshore engineer and I can tell ya once you've been around Barite ..its enough to last a lifetime .

and no they cannot hold the dynamic seal infinitely...cuz they have to bring in the mud from land on barges ..... and really the BOP is damaged ....they cannot afford to keep the BOP under continuous stress for a long time.....and rmbr during this process the BOP is slowly being eroded internally ...its a risk-reward balancing act at this point ...


Wanderer0101 on May 27, 2010 - 1:18pm
Barite is radioactive?!? Barite is radioactive?!? This is a revelatory statement. The questions is, "what does it reveal?"


rangertech1 on May 27, 2010 - 3:13pm
Well...check out http://www.formatebrines.com/ for a little more on drilling mud. They are but one of many producers. Theirs is a cesium product. Now I don't know that this is the mud BP is using, but heavy drilling mud contains some pretty "interesting" ingredients. I have not seen any literature on a mud that contains depleted uranium, but if you want heavy, you kinda need to go in that direction.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. Bill Nye explains drilling mud and the Top Kill procedure

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jjj2/bill-nye-on-how-top-kill-works-14ij

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. thanks. Nye makes it easy to understand, doesn't he?

[eppur_se_muova]

17. It's usually mostly bentonite, a type of clay ...

there is a long article at Wikipedia, but it needs cleaning up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_fluid

"Heavy" mud usually incorporates barite (barium sulfate), a very dense, insoluble mineral. Note that this barite is NOT radioactive -- it is the barite scale which sometimes forms in oil pipes which is radioactive, due to co-crystallization of radium sulfate. The radium is formed by decay of uranium in uranium-bearing strata.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VB5-42YW1SJ-7&_user=558534&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F2001&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1350809123&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000028489&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=558534&md5=cb0c0d0e294c2aaefccbb25cd4357544
http://www.mindat.org/min-7267.html