Cyclone Burns Oil Spilled by BP

One company's loss, another one's gain... While British giant BP was severely damaged by the huge oil spill it caused in the Gulf of Mexico, engine manufacturer Cyclone is trying to make the most of the incident.

As you already know, Cyclone has developed an engine which can run on pretty much any type of fuel available out there. And, of course, anything includes the crude oil which transformed the waters of the Gulf into a viscose mass.

Cyclone ignited a small amount of crude oil into the burning chambers of the Mark V engine and, surprise, the engine started spinning.

"We limited the tests in duration and volume in order to avoid environmental or health dangers, which are a concern when handling this substance," Harry Schoell, Cyclone CEO said in a statement. "For just such reasons, the viability of using crude oil in Cyclone engines to power specialized marine vessels could present some interesting commercial possibilities for the future."

The specialized marine vessels are in fact an older dream of marine engineers: an unmanned surface vehicle capable for searching for oil spills. The engine of the machine would use the spilled oil itself for its locomotion needs. Such a vehicle is currently at the center of a joint research project of Cyclone and Robotic Technology.

Additionally, the spilled oil and the volatile organics and other non-organic impurities can be used to generate heat thanks to the heat-regenerative engine.

"Potential missions include locating, collecting and reporting the position of small oil spills to a control center while getting its energy from skimmed oil so that it can continue its mission indefinitely," said Robert Finkelstein, Robotic Technology president.