'English muffin' is a form of 'hot buoy' : a device intended to float within an oil slick, burning off that oil it encounters as quickly and cleanly as possible .

To attempt this, the float component, (muffin), would hold depth control tanks, (similar in concept to a submarine's),

which could be adjusted so that its deck would be level with the (average) surface of the water, (depending on seas, slightly below if still, above if high) .

Oil and water would wash over the deck and down an accelerating slope into the area beneath the centerpost, (medallion, nipple, tower, erection, mushroom, as one sees it) ;

which is or would be held slightly above the deck by braces, (not shown ; through which would run electrical lines connecting its components to generators in the float) .

_

This space is initially narrow, (which may help prevent fire from escaping), but opens as the deck falls away, (following a 1/x singularity), and the ceiling rises likewise .

In this zone, the water, (being below the oil), will fall first into the lower singularity ; (which expands again at the bottom to release it) .

[ Nested in the center, or at the bottom of this 'wormhole', a helical screw, (not shown), could be used to control its flow rate. ]

The ceiling rises into a chimney where the oil burn would be performed, (or attempted) .

To increase efficiency, the oil could be heated from above, by using the low stretch of the ceiling, (before the bend), to transfer the heat of electrical elements, (not shown), arrayed in a hollow space behind it .

Secondly, air could be forced into the chimney at the bend, above which spark plugs would attempt to ignite the mix .

Air intake in the model is through a hood which surrounds the burn flue at the top .

The intake opening faces downward, and the widening 'bell' of the hood provides space for an electric motor to drive a blower .

This air would pass over the outer surface of the burn flue, picking up heat and cooling its metal .

The flame itself would pass directly upward, unimpeded, out the top of the burn flue and into the atmosphere .

Hopefully, the combination of preheating the crude oil, combining it with additional hot air, and concentrating its fire into a single, rising jet will burn most of the fractions quickly and completely .

_

Power to drive the process could be supplied by batteries or engines within the float, (which could be made wider or deeper if need be) .

If engines are used, fueling could be done through ports on the float deck, while engine air intake could be through snorkels rising above it .   Exhaust could be passed underwater .

The height and width of the centerpost assembly can be varied : a proportionally taller one should produce a cleaner burn, while a broader one could handle more oil .

Adjusting the point of flotation, (likely to be a continuing process, in part because the trust from the jet will seat the buoy lower in the water), might be made easier by a redesign of the deck .

The best material i can imagine for this 'English muffin' would be maraging steel .

An extra, enclosed layer of thermal insulation around the outside would be a good idea .

Though they could be a display artifact, i think the 'fork-split' lines around the outside wall are due to a slight error in my figuring ; they aren't meant to be there .

_

Although this design is rather complicated to put into production in time to address the Deepwater Horizon blowout, i see reason to believe it could do some good there .

Scaled down small enough, these could be shepherded by people with oyster boats using RC setups similar to those for models .

In aggregate, they could burn a fair portion of the spill, closer to land than open burns would be allowed, and in waters the operators knew best : those from which they draw their livelihood .

Made large enough, they could weather the sea fairly well, and burn a good deal more .

One strategy for deploying them could be to tow one out to a drifting slick, set it, then circle it with a boom in a tightening spiral .

In either case, much would depend on its ability to keep flame from spreading out across the surface of the slick .

_

Perhaps as important, for the future, is the design's potential for modification to meet the conditions of the Arctic, where oil companies wish to drill and continue drilling .

There is concern that a blowout on Alaska's North Slope is a possibility ; that if it is large and uncontrolled enough, its effects could spread beyond our borders and persist for decades ;

and that the sea's seasonal ice cover could make containing a blowout much more difficult .

This design, by heating both oil and air, (further preheating could be engineered in), might burn oil which otherwise would not .

I believe it is possible to construct and to modify the design so that it could withstand sea ice, (to a point) ; travel fully submerged beneath it if need be ;

and, perhaps with help, cut or ram its way through to intercept a runaway flow of oil : gathering it from beneath the ice, and burning it above .