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22MTRJanuary/February 2012 Competition ResultsWendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X ChallengeTeam Comb CombCalmWave Wave Wave MEANMEANMEAN MEAN MEAN MEAN ORRORRORRORRORRORR1Elastec 467089.5470688.9463390.12.NOFI 271283295891.92466743.Koseq 206587.92311 98.2181877.64.OilShaver 200790.7200892.6200688.85.Crucial 188871.3214979.7162662.86.Lamor 141392.5136291.4146593.67.Vor-Tek 226957.3301472.1152542.58.OilWhale 102142.8155744.6485419.PPR 96292.1104596.987887.310.Voraxial 69349.294163.944534.5barrel skimmer. Dubbed the Disc Groove Skimmer , itutilized a series of special discs instead of a barrel, dramat- ically increasing the surface area for oil collection and allowing the team to increase the RPMs to meet (and as it turns out, drastically exceed) the 2,500 gpm challenge. Donnie Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Elastec/American, summarized: ?This is the biggest oil skimmer we?ve ever built,? ?When we started, it seemed like a really big challenge; we?d started down one path that didn?t work, then we tried another path, and then we eventually came out with this Disc Groove Skimmer,? said Charlie Storey, Research & Development. ?Everyone like it, and it looked like a really good con- cept, but until we actually got it out there in the oil and tested it we really didn?t know. When we put it into the oil and tested it, and we saw how much oil it really did pick up, we were impressed, and we knew we were on to some- thing.? Team Elastec partnered with Glosten Associates, Inc., a long-tenured and well-respected naval architecture and marine engineering firm, for the project. Glosten provid- ed vessel engineering, mechanical system design, and operations support throughout the aggressive 45 day development process, integrating Elastec?s Grooved Disk recovery technology into a sophisticated and robust recov- ery system. This system, a U-shaped aluminum hull out- fitted with the ingenious collection and separation sys-tems, achieved the incredible oil recovery rates. Elastec/American Marine and Glosten are currently devel- oping this combination of collection and Grooved Disk recovery technologies into several derivative designs, including a compact, easily deployable oil-recovery pack- age expected to be commercially available shortly. Awards Ceremony participants included Wendy Schmidt, President, Schmidt Family Foundation and Title Donor of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHAL- LENGE; David Lawrence, Executive Vice President, Exploration and Commercial, Shell Upstream Americas; Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, CEO & Chairman, X PRIZE Foundation; Robert K. Weiss, Vice Chairman & President, X PRIZE Foundation; and Cristin Dorgelo Lindsay, Vice President, Prize Operations, X PRIZE Foundation. The $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is the fourth competition awarded by the X PRIZE Foundation. www.xprize.org MTR#1 (18-33):MTR Layouts 1/3/2012 2:17 PM Page 22