Engineers: Lara Glendening and Marilynn Hunt

Project Proposal:
Background (Why/What)

According to the US Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons of oil spill into US waters alone
each year, and major oil spills can greatly exceed that amount. There are various ways to clean
them up, such as sponges to absorb the oil, burning off the oil or chemical dispersants, but they
produce a lot of waste that sinks to the bottom of the ocean and can harm the environment in
other ways. This leads to damaging of ecosystems. For our Senior Capstone Project we would
like to design a method that uses the bacteria ​alcanivorax borkumensis​. The microbe is native
to all oceans and eats oil. Our goal is to find a way to increase their population and speed up
their process of consuming the oil. We plan to create some sort of spray that will work similarly
to chemical dispersants, but it will be much less harmful to the environment. We could also use
the existing method of sponges to soak up the oil, but infuse the bacteria into the sponges. This
will build on the success of microbes in cleaning the Macondo well disaster in 2010. In this spill,
microbes cleaned up millions of barrels of oil, but their performance was not perfect. They could
not eat some of the larger molecules, they took a long time, and they required nutrients such as
nitrogen and phosphorous to perform efficiently. We must find a way to make sure the bacteria
has all the nutrients it needs and can eat most or all of the molecules. One possible way is to
use genetically engineered bacteria that can produce its own nutrients, which was done in a
study in the Brazilian Journal of Microbiology. If this is possible for us, it would be a good way to
ensure the bacteria get the nutrients they need.

Objectives

1) Identify the engineering issue (oil pollution) & current product weaknesses, such as
damage current solutions do to the environment
2) Do extensive background research about the product and problem, including research
on environmental engineering and biotechnology
3) Specify requirements of the project, estimate figures (costs, dimensions, materials etc)
4) Design and evaluate project proposals and select the best solution (Spray? Sponges
soaked with bacteria?)
5) Identify project’s largest risks, develop a risk mitigation plan to help determine what to
prototype
6) Develop a prototype of the best product design
7) Test the prototype and survey the market/key customers
8) Analyze results and data of testing and surveys
9) If statistics show an unfavorable market/key customer response to the design:
a) Review information and project procedure
b) Make changes to improve the design
10) If statistics show a positive market/key customer response to the design:
 a) Communicate results and officialize the final product
b) Patent the design if necessary

Broader Scope (Problems you are trying to solve)

Our final goal for this project is to create a method of cleaning up oil spills that does minimal
damage to the environment. We will focus on creating something that does not leave harmful
waste behind and does minimal damage to the ecosystem. We would also like it to run on
renewable energy if possible, to give our project the smallest environmental footprint it can
have. Our main focus will be on the ecosystem immediately surrounding the spill, but we will
also try to improve our product’s overall sustainability and functionality. The final design should
be better for the environment than previous designs, and it should be more effective than
previous solutions as well. We would test it by creating a smaller, to scale prototype. We would
observe how quickly and efficiently it removes the oil from water.

Timeframe

Task Start End

Phase One Project Proposal 12/3/18 In process

Phase Two Project Research 12/4/18 In process

Phase Three Project Construction tbd tbd

Phase Four Project Finalization tbd tbd

Project Budget (Estimate)

The main costs for this project will be from materials. We plan on making a few prototypes of the
apparatus to ensure that the design is ideal. The most expensive aspect is the bacteria, which
costs about $300. We will also be testing other materials that will possibly be used, and we will
determine a final cost after we have done these tests.

Development process (How)

● Research and study the problem: We will research the current solutions to oil spill
cleanup and how the oil spreads in the ocean. This background information will provide
insight on how to create the most effective and eco-friendly solution. We will put this
information on a padlet where it is easy to access and brainstorm.
● Identify gaps in current products
● Design system(s) that addresses the gaps in current products
 ● Identify largest risks (design, timing, market, environment, etc) and risk mitigation plan
(Test, Analyze, etc) with the system(s)’s design
● Design and execute experimental tests or analytical simulations to address risks
● Update system design/project based on outcome of tests/analysis
● Design: Our design will depend on our research. As of now our plan is to either create a
mechanism that sprays the bacteria or a ‘sponge’ that is infused with the bacteria so that
it will absorb and eat the oil. We will thoroughly test the designs to determine which
design is most effective.
● Prototyping: When we reach the prototyping stage we will have narrowed down our
design to one of the two options. We will design our prototype to minimize the gaps
found in our research and design phases. We will then test our prototype, analyze or
results, and then create a new prototype, adjusting it to better meet our needs based on
the data. We will keep testing until we have the most effective and environmentally
friendly design possible.

Size of the current market:

There are about 10 tanker spills per year at 20,000 tons total. This is an average of 2,000 tons
per spill. In order to meet 80% of market, our product should be able to be deployed 10 times a
year and clean up 1600 tons of oil each deployment.

Current Solutions (Market Research)​:

Current solutions all have one or more drawbacks (Gaps):

● Chemical dispersants break up the oil but are harmful to the ecosystem killing reefs
because of the bleach.
● Burning off the oil sends pollutants up into the atmosphere. It also greatly disrupts the
ecosystem.
● Booms are helpful in preventing the spread of oil. However, they do not help remove the
oil.
● Skimming the oil is useful for removing the oil from the surface, but it leaves the oil that
has started sinking further below the water level. This can eventually settle on the bottom
of the ocean.
Current Product Gap How we will fix it

Chemical dispersants The chemicals released are Our spray’s ingredients will
harmful to the environment be natural and unharmful

Burning Releases CO2 The bacteria does not release

an excess of harmful waste

Booms Does not actually remove oil The bacteria eats the oil

Skimming Only removes surface level Bacteria will be physically in

oil the ocean to eat oil
There are also current solutions that use microbes, but they are not as effective as the more
harmful methods. One problem is that they require nitrogen and phosphorous as nutrients,
which can be scarce. They also have trouble eating larger pieces of oil, and they take a long
time to eat up large spills. Although oil-eating microbes exist, there is no marketable product
that makes use of them.

Key Personnel

Project Manager Marilynn Hunt

Project Facilitator Lara Glendening

Project Fabricator Lara Glendening

Project Communicator Marilynn Hunt

Supplementary Personnel

Name Profession

Mentor 1 Matt Rodnick Retired Engineer

Scientific/ Engineering Concepts (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biotech, Engineering

concepts that you will apply to your project, and utilize perform tests)

Math Concepts:​ In our spray and/or bacteria solution, we will need to calculate ratios between
the bacteria and other ingredients. Math will also be used in our testing to determine efficiency
and public approval.

Chemistry concepts:​ We may have to use chemistry to determine and test the ingredients of the
spray/solution.

Biotechnology:​ The use of bacteria to eat oil links to biotech. We also may be using genetically
engineered bacteria.

Engineering:​ This project utilizes the concepts of environmental engineering, mechanical

engineering, and bioengineering. These fields also give us insight into the properties of water,
which may be useful in our tests. (below is a table showing the properties of water)

Delivery of inputs - Low, demonstrated by existing aerosol designs

Process parameters to design amount of materials passing through and size of system - High,
demonstrated by our research showing that the bacteria takes a long time to eat the oil
Bacteria life cycle in storage and aerosol deployment - Medium, demonstrated by the fact that
they naturally flourish in oil-polluted areas but can be induced to grow and live elsewhere
Containing and Controlling Processes - Medium, demonstrated by existing aerosol designs and
other designs that use microbes
Hardening System against Environment - Low, demonstrated by existing aerosol designs
Disposing of Output - Medium, demonstrated by research that shows that larger chunks of oil
may not be eaten by the bacteria
Conclusion: The highest risk is that the bacteria may not eat the oil quickly. This can be
mitigated by adding nitrogen and phosphorous to the spray to increase the bacteria’s metabolic
rate.

Monitoring and Evaluation

We will be monitored by our mentor Matt Rodnick and our teacher Mr Tronconi. They will also
evaluate our progress and advise us. In June 2019, our final product will be presented to and
evaluated by industry professionals.

Approval Signatures