| Microbial Oil Degradation |
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The natural interaction of small oil droplets (1 - 10 micron droplets) with micro-organisms have long been accepted by the environmental scientific community as an effective remediation pathway for natural and synthetic oil spills. The indigenous (resident) micro-organisms are made up of a diverse population, only part of which could be characterized as oil-degraders. These populations compete for fundamental nutrients and in the case of aerobic microbes, the oxygen in the water body. A decrease in the oxygen content in water (typically measured in parts per million) could be viewed as a direct indication of robust microbial activity working to degrade oil in water body.
The use of dispersants on oil spills are intended to micronize the oil into small droplets, increasing the surface area and accelerating the natural biodegradation of the oil by indiginous micro-origanisms. Questions remain as to the interference that certain ingredients within chemical dispersants may have on this natural process.
There are several third party research reports indicating certain dispersants dramatically, when applied to reduce oil droplet size, stimulate the growth of the indigenous oil-degrading populations of microbes when compared to oil dispersed by natural wave action.
About a hundred known species of bacteria and fungi are able to use oil to sustain their growth and metabolism. In areas with oil spills the population of heterotrophic bacterial population can be as high as 10% of the total microbe population.
The biochemical processes of oil degradation with microbes occur in several types of enzyme reactions based on oxygenases, dehydrogenases, and hydrolases. These enzymes are effective in aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon hydrooxidation, oxidative deamination, hydrolysis, and other biochemical transformations of the original oil substances and the intermediate products of degradation. The rate of degradation depends greatly on the structure of the hydrocarbon molecule. The paraffin compounds (straight chain alkanes) biodegrade faster than aromatic (cyclic ring) and naphthenic substances. The greater the complexity of the hydrocarbon molecule the slower the rate of degradation.
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Cytosol Product Information
Microbial Oil Degradation
