I believe the best way to address CRUDE OIL Pollution is to culture release large amounts of micro

[opihimoimoi]

organisms that actually "eat" oil...over the long haul, the tiny critters will consume what Humans cannot retrieve....esp in the Marshes

[Delphinus]

1. Hmm ...

tell us more. Why hasn't this been thought of or discussed? Or has it been and I missed it?

[liberalla]

5. This article from April 30th discusses it

"If it wasn't for the natural ability of bacteria to eat oil we would all be knee-deep in the stuff"

Can Microbes Save the Gulf Beaches? The Challenges Are Myriad

by Eli Kintisch on April 30, 2010 2:05 PM


At this point it's unclear how much of an environmental threat oil spreading from the BP spill will cause, but the federal government is mobilizing thousands of workers to prepare for the worst. They have a potential ally: microbes that have evolved an ability to break down oil that seeps from the ocean bottom. It gets devoured by a variety of bacteria, which eat it by chemically transforming its compounds into useful cellular constituents. "If it wasn't for the natural ability of bacteria to eat oil we would all be knee-deep in the stuff," says bioremediation expert Ken Lee of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia, Canada.

So could bugs help cleanse the gulf? A number of companies have tried to create bacteria that could break down oil on demand, but Lee and colleague Albert Venosa of the Environmental Protection Agency say that experiments have shown that novel bacteria, even if they show promise in the lab, cannot compete with bacteria already living on beaches and marshes. Experiments have shown that adding nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the beaches can speed up the ability of natural bacteria to break down oil. "What would've taken 5 or 6 years to accomplish can occur in a single summer," says Lee.

While adding such fertilizers has worked in small scale coastal experiments in which oil was purposefully spread on wetlands, experts don't know of examples from an actual spill. The challenge with wetland marshes is that the toxicity of the oil can kill plants before the microbes have a chance to get to work on the oil. "If that happens, you can lose the whole marsh," Lee says. Workers have been trying to remove as much oil at sea as possible to reduce the amount that hits the shore. They will also need to deploy protective booms to protect the wetlands.

Another challenge: it appears to Vennosa, from photos and news reports, that the oil leaking from the borehole contains water. That makes it more difficult to burn at sea, more difficult to break up into tiny particles using chemicals called dispersants, and more difficult for bacteria to break down. But he cautions that he has not gotten real data on the makeup of the oil striking the coast.


http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/04/can-microbes-save-the-gulf-beach.html

Sounds promising, but timing is crucial.

[liberalla]

2. Yes. I've heard of that before.

That's got to be the best idea yet - Eliminate the oil and repair the damage to natural systems (SAFELY!). I wonder what amounts would be required for success?

Is someone already working on this?

Great idea, opihimoimoi. The more I think about it the more excited I get.

[liberalla]

3. Found this

Oil-eating bacteria to clean up spills
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/oileating_bacte_1.php

A Hope For Oil Spill Bioremediation
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050517063708.htm

[liberalla]

4. Microorganisms degrade crude oil: bacteria

Microorganisms degrade crude oil: bacteria
http://www.asknature.org/strategy/9b790ca8fabf7da14ca0b0cddc2d4ca2

Sequential Growth of Bacteria on Crude Oil
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC187105/

[newfie11]

6. would the dispersant change the bacteria's ability to eat the oil? n/t

[liberalla]

12. See post #8

RE: Munox

This stuff can be used in concert with the dispersant.

[Roland99]

7. I have a MUCH better idea!!!

We make anyone who ever yelled "Drill, Baby, Drill" bail out every drop of oil-tainted water and then make Rush Limbaugh bathe in it for the rest of his life.

[liberalla]

8. . . . Munox . . .

Osprey Biotechnics, a company in Sarasota feels certain their product will help.

Local company volunteers oil-eating bacteria

A locally based grower of industrial-strength bacteria says it is willing to turn over its entire production line to producing its patented oil-eating bugs to help mitigate future environmental damage from the oil leak threatening Florida's coastline.

But executives at Osprey Biotechnics are still trying to find the right governmental people to consider their plan for abating the damage.

“We are prepared to divert all our production to this specific culture,” said Lauren Danielson, executive vice president, after a day of back-to-back meetings with the production staff and key corporate clients.

Osprey's bacteria, brand-named Munox, can be mixed with a dispersant and are viable in salt water, executives told the Herald Tribune. “They would apply our bacteria directly on the water,” said company president Vincent Scuilla. “The bacteria attaches to the oil, which is its food, and the things start colonizing. And now these hungry bacteria are literally consuming the oil, digesting it, and breaking it down to harmless end products like CO2 and water.”

more:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100504/BREAKING/100509918/2416/NEWS?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar

This stuff sounds great. It can work WITH the dispersant.

[liberalla]

9. They are approved by the EPA

They boast of their partnership with the EPA, and developing many
of their products under the Design for the Environment (DfE) program.

More Osprey Biotechnics/EPA Info

[X_Digger]

10. I wonder, though, about the impact to natural oils.

Is this a 'little old lady who swallowed a fly' solution, or will they (the bacteria) only target pollutants, and not the fatty acids and long chain molecules needed by other living critters.

[liberalla]

13. Check out the FOX 13 Tampa news clip, and see what you think...

The woman being interviewed, Victoria Finley, gives a good explanation of the product, Munox.

It will 'target' the petroleum like molecules in the water or on the shore. She says it's the carbon chains in the oil that the microbes eat.

FOX 13 Tampa News

I'm not a scientist, and I only found the article this morning. After opihimoimoi's OP, I just started looking around. This stuff sounds great, but it's what we don't know about Munox that needs investigating - by experts.


:hi:

[liberalla]

11. Here's some local news clips (video) on Munox

http://www.ospreybiotechnics.com/fox13.html"> FOX 13 Tampa

http://www.ospreybiotechnics.com/10connects.html"> 10 Connects Tampa Bay

http://www.ospreybiotechnics.com/snn.html"> SNN 6 Sarasota

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. That's the idea behind the dispersant.

There are already organisms that eat the oil, and the dispersant breaks it up so that they can get to it.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. Those microbes don't breed well in labs, but they are mass producing naturally now in the Gulf

I read an article the beginning of the month in Science Daily which said the best way to manage the clean up in many eco-sensitive areas was to simply leave these microbes alone to do their jobs.