Although the most sensational aspects of a major oil spill usually disappear from the news cycle quickly, the long-term environmental damage lingers for months or years. The sight of animal rescue teams cleaning waterbirds illustrates visible damage, but some of the most important cleanup work today is being done by micro-organisms. Bioremediation companies use them to literally consume environmental pollutants.
These tiny creatures include yeasts, fungi, and bacteria in combination with their enzymes. They all play specific roles in filtering harmful substances, especially raw hydrocarbons. The processes they employ take time, and work most efficiently when the pollutants to be consumed are already part of their normal diet. To speed things up, artificial stimulation encourages them to work harder and longer.
Unlike other organisms, these creatures produce energy and take in nutrients while digesting harmful substances, effectively removing those chemicals them from the existing food chain, and preventing other creatures from being poisoned. Bio-stimulation encourages them to eat more than they would normally by increasing the oxygen supply through aeration, which helps them to metabolize substances more quickly. Bio-augmentation goes a step further.
Often used in combination with aeration, augmentation basically means increasing the population of existing beneficial microbes by adding large quantities of artificially grown organisms of the same type. This helps nature take its course, but without wasting as much time. If these new additions are balanced properly, existing toxins will be broken down faster into sulfates, carbon dioxide, water, and other beneficial materials.
The process works both in water and on land. The rapid mobilization of resources that World War II demanded left little time for environmental concerns, and leaking storage units or fuel depots in military installations created ecological havoc during the following decades. The poisons remained active for years, contaminating ground water and increasing cancer rates locally. Traditional removal methods involved scooping up soil, and then storing it permanently.
Encouraging microbes do the dirty cleanup work reduces surface disruption and digging, and the process can be specifically targeted toward a particular contaminant. Rather than producing additional toxic disposal issues, microorganisms create by-products that actually serve as food for other local creatures. This method costs less over the long-term, and is ideal in locations that are physically difficult to reach.
Biological remediation is not possible in all toxic situations. Although bacteria have adapted to include many hazards in their diet, some substances are simply too poisonous, or may cover an area too large to be effectively transformed using this type of remediation. To be optimally effective, a site must be monitored regularly to confirm that improvements are ongoing. When time is an important factor, it is still quicker to use earth-moving equipment.
Many companies choose this type of recovery because the final costs are around half those associated with earlier methods, including lowered insurance rates for employees not subjected to hazards. There are reduced concerns for the long-term safety and viability of storage sites, and there is virtually no chemical evaporation. When all conditions are ideal for this process, a balanced and healthy natural system can be restored in relatively short time.
These tiny creatures include yeasts, fungi, and bacteria in combination with their enzymes. They all play specific roles in filtering harmful substances, especially raw hydrocarbons. The processes they employ take time, and work most efficiently when the pollutants to be consumed are already part of their normal diet. To speed things up, artificial stimulation encourages them to work harder and longer.
Unlike other organisms, these creatures produce energy and take in nutrients while digesting harmful substances, effectively removing those chemicals them from the existing food chain, and preventing other creatures from being poisoned. Bio-stimulation encourages them to eat more than they would normally by increasing the oxygen supply through aeration, which helps them to metabolize substances more quickly. Bio-augmentation goes a step further.
Often used in combination with aeration, augmentation basically means increasing the population of existing beneficial microbes by adding large quantities of artificially grown organisms of the same type. This helps nature take its course, but without wasting as much time. If these new additions are balanced properly, existing toxins will be broken down faster into sulfates, carbon dioxide, water, and other beneficial materials.
The process works both in water and on land. The rapid mobilization of resources that World War II demanded left little time for environmental concerns, and leaking storage units or fuel depots in military installations created ecological havoc during the following decades. The poisons remained active for years, contaminating ground water and increasing cancer rates locally. Traditional removal methods involved scooping up soil, and then storing it permanently.
Encouraging microbes do the dirty cleanup work reduces surface disruption and digging, and the process can be specifically targeted toward a particular contaminant. Rather than producing additional toxic disposal issues, microorganisms create by-products that actually serve as food for other local creatures. This method costs less over the long-term, and is ideal in locations that are physically difficult to reach.
Biological remediation is not possible in all toxic situations. Although bacteria have adapted to include many hazards in their diet, some substances are simply too poisonous, or may cover an area too large to be effectively transformed using this type of remediation. To be optimally effective, a site must be monitored regularly to confirm that improvements are ongoing. When time is an important factor, it is still quicker to use earth-moving equipment.
Many companies choose this type of recovery because the final costs are around half those associated with earlier methods, including lowered insurance rates for employees not subjected to hazards. There are reduced concerns for the long-term safety and viability of storage sites, and there is virtually no chemical evaporation. When all conditions are ideal for this process, a balanced and healthy natural system can be restored in relatively short time.
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