When a major oil spill occurs, the environmental effects linger long after the story disappears from the daily news cycle. Crews are almost always shown rescuing local birds and other affected animals, but the most significant cleanup efforts today involve creatures that exist and work on a much smaller scale. Bioremediation companies use naturally occurring organisms to consume and destroy man-made 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.
When these organisms consume a particular pollutant, they not only produce nutrients and energy, but also digest the contaminant, removing it from the local food chain. Convincing them to eat more than is normal usually requires bio-stimulation. If oxygen levels are increased in water where beneficial microbes already exist, the creatures metabolize nutrients faster. Bio-augmentation takes the process 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.
Not all toxic contamination can be effectively removed biologically. There are some materials that even the hardiest bacteria cannot consume, and the size and extent of the pollution site is also important in determining whether this type of remediation will work as intended. Sites must be monitored to make sure toxins are steadily diminishing, and it takes micro-organisms longer to do their job when compared to mechanically removing and containing the topsoil.
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.
When these organisms consume a particular pollutant, they not only produce nutrients and energy, but also digest the contaminant, removing it from the local food chain. Convincing them to eat more than is normal usually requires bio-stimulation. If oxygen levels are increased in water where beneficial microbes already exist, the creatures metabolize nutrients faster. Bio-augmentation takes the process 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.
Not all toxic contamination can be effectively removed biologically. There are some materials that even the hardiest bacteria cannot consume, and the size and extent of the pollution site is also important in determining whether this type of remediation will work as intended. Sites must be monitored to make sure toxins are steadily diminishing, and it takes micro-organisms longer to do their job when compared to mechanically removing and containing the topsoil.
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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