BIOREMEDIATION
Preservation and safeguarding of the environment
Oil-eating bacteria
The natural bacteria to eliminate hydrocarbons
Oil has been part of life on earth for millions of years.
In nature, exist microorganisms that have the capacity to degrade hydrocarbons.
These bacteria are capable of metabolizing the hydrocarbon molecules. It decomposes and reduces them to harmless basic compounds for the ecosystem.
This is how nature protects itself from the natural leaks of hydrocarbons that emerge from different environments.
What is it
Bioremediation is the decontamination process that, using these microorganisms, accelerates that natural and irreversible process, in places where contamination is really high.
Among these microorganisms there is the pseudomona putida, one of the main bacteria of the preparation Biopulcher Petreololítico. This bacterium is able to completely degrade every kind of hydrocarbons and their derivatives including fuel, gasoline and diesel, among others.
The bacteria decompose the hydrocarbon transforming them basically in CO2, H2O and organic waste. Once its source of food (hydrocarbon) is finished, the area is decontaminated, the bacteria die and they are integrated back into the natural cycle as a protein food for other living organisms.
Bioremediation is able to decontaminate large surfaces in a very short time. In some cases, it can be used, end to end, as the only decontamination method and, in others, could complement traditional methods of absorption, collection and extraction.
Above all, Bioremediation represents the final and definitive solution in any hydrocarbon decontamination process.
After Bioremediation there can only exist more Bioremediation.
The cycle of Bioremediation
REMEDIATION: Solve a problem
BIO-REMEDIATION: Use biological organism to solve a problem
How does it work
Collection
Samples of the area contaminated by hydrocarbons are collected throughout all the Bioremediation process.
FERMENTATION
The lyophilized bacteria are poured into containers filled with water, nutrients and hydrocarbons from the contaminated area. The fermentation process lasts between 4 and 6 hours. The bacteria are activated and they reproduced until reach the optimal moment, which is when they are applied.
APLICATION
Once prepared, the bacterial inoculum is applied on the contaminated surface and the bacteria start to work.
DEGRADATION
RECUPERATION
The stain begins to disappear; the bacteria no longer find hydrocarbons “to feed”, they die and return to the circle of the environment in a natural way. The sea returns to the state prior to pollution. The ecosystem is safe.
Bioremediation benefits
- It is a technology that can be applied “in situ” almost always. Therefore, it is not necessary to transfer the contamination to other places because it works in the same place where the contamination is located.
- It is a totally Natural and respectful with the environment Technology. It is not toxic; it is not pathogenic neither for the plankton, nor for the continental or marine ictofauna, nor for the flora or the human beings.
- It is the only treatment that definitively eliminates the residues of hydrocarbons by decomposing and reducing them to harmless compounds.
- The European Regulations recommend In Situ decontamination with respect to excavation and transport of the contaminated waste to treatment plants.
- It can be used for a complete decontamination process (end to end) or in conjunction with other Traditional, Chemical or Mechanical Techniques, to complete a decontamination process.
- Excellent cost/efficiency ratio, better than many other techniques.
- Wide scope of applicability: Marine environments, port waters, soil, subsoil, sandy, rocky areas, etc.
Where
Bioremediation could be applied to any accidental spillage of hydrocarbons and their derivatives in marine environments and port waters and on a multitude of surfaces:
- Ground
- Subsoil
- Marine environments
- Port waters
- Sandy areas
- Rocky areas
- Any area or surface on which a minimum amount of free oxygen is available.
In addition
In order to neutralize odors it can be used in:
- Organic sludge
- Odors of sewage treatment plants, sewage, wastewater treatment plants, recycling plants
- Bed of rivers, swamps and ponds
- Sewers, leachates, urban organic waste, etc.