Transcript Slide 1

Cleaning Oil Spills
Through Bio Remediation
Becky Otter
March 3, 2006
Where and How Often Do Oil Spills
Occur?
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Last year alone there were 21 spills between 7-700
tonnes of oil and 3 spills over 700 tonnes of oil.
(www.itopf.com/stats.html )
(www.itopf.com/stats.html )
~ 2 million gallons of bilge water
is dumped per year into the
oceans with an average of
100ppm of oil
http://www.acnatsci.org/educatio
n/kye/hi/kye52002.html#sec3)
Making Refined Oil
Structure
of “Heavy”
Crude oil.
(http://www.l
loydminster
heavyoil.co
m/whatislau
nch.htm)
(www.eia.doe.gov/.../ Refining_text.htm)
Oil Distillation Column in Fawley UK
Clean Up Methods
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Mechanical containment or recovery
 Chemical and biological
 Physical
What Affects How Diesel Fuel is
Degraded by Microbes?
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Hydrophobic nature of oil limits transfer to cell
surfaces of micro-organisms
Concentration of oil
Composition of oil
Temperature
pH if the oil is on soil
Viscosity
R. erythropolis, a close relative to EN3 strain
(Leahy and Colwell, Microbiol Rev. 1990 September; 54(3): 305–315 )
(Lee, et al., Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2006; 100: 325-333.)
How The Surfactant Interacts with
the Hydrocarbon
The surfactant surrounds the
hydrocarbon allowing the
bacterial cell to take up the
hydrocarbon
The hydrophobic tails of the
surfactants interact which each
other forming a micelle in an
aqueous solution
(Makkar and Rockne, Enviro. Tox and Chem 2003)
“Enhanced biodegration of diesel oil by a newly identified Rhodococcus
baikonurensis EN3 in presence of mycolic acid”
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The EN3 strain can undergo the following process
O2
CO2
+
H2O
ANY HYDROCARBON
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Mycolic acid (a surfactant) was synthesized to
increase the bioavailability of diesel to microbes
Scientists compared mycolic acid enhancement to
enhancement by other surfactants at 20,000mg/l of
oil.
Used gas chromatography to measure the amounts of
diesel degraded
(Lee, et al., Journal of Applied
Microbiology. 2006; 100: 325-333.)
Mycolic Acid
Results
Figure 4 Degradation of diesel oil by Rhodococcus baikonurensis strain EN3.
Strain EN3 was inoculated into MS solutions with diesel oil at different
concentrations: (a) 1000, (b) 5000, (c) 10 000, and (d) 20 000 mg l 1. Initial
inoculated cell concentration was 6 ×104 CFU ml 1. •, Uninoculated cultures
as controls; ○, inoculated cultures for the experiments.
Figure 5 Chromatograms of diesel oil degradation [(a) 0 day, (b) first day, (c) second day, (d) third day, (e)
fourth day, (f) fifth day, (g) sixth day and (h) seventh day]. The added diesel oil concentration was
10 000 mg l 1. Two of the residual peaks at the final day (h) were identified as the recalcitrant hydrocarbons
pristane (Pr) and phytane (Ph).
Figure 7 Effect of mycolic acid on the degradation of
diesel oil by Rhodococcus baikonurensis strain EN3.
Initial concentration of the diesel oil was 20 000 mg l 1,
Figure 6 Effect of surfactants (100 mg l 1) on the and the initial cell concentration 6 × 104 CFU ml 1.
degradation of diesel oil by Rhodococcus
Initial concentration of mycolic acid: ○, 10 mg l 1; ,
baikonurensis strain EN3. Initial
50 mg l 1; , 100 mg l 1. •, Uninoculated cultures
concentration of the diesel oil was
without mycolic acid as control 1; , inoculated cultures
20 000 mg l 1, and the initial cell
without mycolic acid as control 2.
concentration 6 × 104 CFU ml 1.
Results
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After 7 days EN3 alone degraded almost
Amount of Diesel Fuel
Percent degraded after 7 days
1000mg/l
~100%
5000mg/l
64.90%
10000mg/l
60.70%
20000mg/l
30.50%
Most of the degradation occurring in the first 3 days.
 Other surfactants can enhance degradation of diesel,
however mycolic acid is the most effectiveat
20,000mg/l.
 There was no real difference between maximum level
of degradation with samples containing mycolic acid at
10, 50, & 100 mg/l.
Conclusion
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The bacterial strain EN3 along with synthetic mycolic
acid has the potential to degrade fairly large amounts
of fuel over a short period of time in both aqueous and
soil environments
 This is new alternative or additive to current methods
of cleaning oil spills without the other worries such as
how to dispose of the diesel soaked sorbents or
environmental effects caused from burning off the oil
Sources
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Academy of Natural Sciences website, accessed Feb 2006.
http://www.acnatsci.org/education/kye/hi/kye52002.html#sec3
Biswas, et al. “Microbial uptake of diesel oil sorbed on soil and oil spill clean-up
sorbents.” Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. 2005; 80: 587593.
Burford and Hien. “Effect of Foam Density, Oil Viscosity, and
Temperature on
Oil Sorption Behavior of Polyurethane.” Journal of Applied Polymer Science.
2006; 99: 360-367.
ITOPF website, accessed Feb 2006. (http://www.itopf.com/stats.html)
Leahy and Colwell.“Microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the environment.”
Microbiol Rev. 1990 September; 54(3): 305–315
Lee, et al. “Enhanced biodegration of diesel oil by newly identified Rhodococcus
baiknurensis EN3 in the presence of mycolic acid.” Journal of Applied
Microbiology. 2006; 100: 325-333.
Makkar R. and Rockne K. “Comparison of synthetic surfactants and biosuractants in
enhancing biodegration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry. 2003; 22 (10): 2280-2292.
Oil Spills-EPA website, accessed Feb 2006
(http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/oiltech.htm).