The Power of Bacteria to Fix the Oil Spill

Aerial photo of Gulf Oil Spill

Among the buzzwords of today, one that is passed around like the hot potato is, the Oil Spill.  By now, there is not an American who doesn’t know about the large quantities of oil floating on the Gulf of Mexico’s surface, pluming in its depths, and polluting its shores; but that’s about the extent of the average person’s knowledge.  What is being omitted is how to efficiently and economically resolve this problem; here’s the hook: it’s all-natural.  How is this possible?  The answer already lies in the world’s oceans.  Bacteria!

Every year, about 160,000 tons of oil is naturally released from the world’s collective ocean floors, but oil isn’t naturally clouding the world’s oceans.  So where does it all go?  The answer again is, bacteria.  Bacteria thrive on the oceans’ floors where oil is emitted and quite literally eat it.  Bacteria are capable of adapting in such ways that allow them to digest oil and produce a byproduct that is safely eaten by marine life.  The heavier parts of the oil that escape the bacteria sink back down to be digested as well.  This concept has been brought to labs to be applied to oil spill clean-up situations, and has successfully been applied to two significant oil spills in the past.  The spills were both cleaned up in a matter of weeks.

The limits of bacteria to eat waste are still beyond our imagination as proven by its ability to digest various forms of waste.  Their application is much more common than one would think; including the three examples given below:

Bacteria to stabilize Uranium: Even now, labs are testing another type of bacteria that scientists believe can “eat” Uranium.  The bacteria are capable of converting the elements from radioactive Uranium (VI) to stable Uranium (IV).  Why would we want to do this?  The answer is simple, because there are a large number of sites that exist as remnants of the Cold War and are common enough to do potential damage to major waterways and ecosystems.

Bacteria to clean up Perchlorate: Another application of such bacteria-based technology lies in Perchlorate contaminated sites arising from such contaminants as solid rocket fuel, flares, and munitions used by the U.S. defense and space programs.  In some sites, contamination close to the surface can be removed by excavation; but in others, the contamination is deep underground and very near the water table.  The Perchlorate can be dissolved into the ground water and proceed to poison nearby populations.  The engineering company, CDM, has successfully developed and patented a method of stimulating bacteria that are known to digest Perchlorate in water and produce clean water with a harmless byproduct.

Bacteria to treat wastewater: Wastewater treatment plants apply bacteria into the process of water purification.  Of the three most common methods of treating wastewater, bacteria are used in each of them including: the trickling filter, activated sludge, and anaerobic digestion.

Using bacteria to clean-up waste has proven effective in numerous situations.  For the Gulf Oil spill it could prove to be not only quicker and safer, but also cheaper than anything we’ve got so far.

References:
1) Looking Deep to Remediate Perchlorate http://www.cdm.com/NR/rdonlyres/C7E63C7A-CC59-4866-AE47-4FDBF570930C/0/LookingDeeptoRemediatePerchlorate.pdf

2)  Uranium eating bacteria clean radioactive  sites http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3372/uranium-eating-bacteria-clean-radioactive-sites?page=0%2C0

3) Tiny Tools to Tackle Oil Spills  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSlTUuqOKbI

4) Gulf Oil Spill – Microbes that will eat oil in weeks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-yVBXfW9Z4

5)Wetlands to clean up oil spills:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXrOyqlGe50