Bio-remediation of Oil Spills using Microbes - Essay Example

Apart from the above, people illegally may dump the pollutants such as the crude oil into the sea. Moreover, terrorists may also cause the oil spills just to destroy the country’s resources. The major victims of the oil spills occurring in the sea would be the aquatic animals and other marine living organisms which include plants under the sea. Thus, cleaning up and recovering from the oil spill are a major tasks and it is mainly based on the factors such as the nature of the oil that is being spilled, the quantity or the amount and the nature of the area being affected.

There are different methods for cleaning up the oil spills which ensemble chemical treatment and Bioremediation. Bioremediation is the process of using the microorganisms to break down and remove the pollutants. “Bioremediation usually involves the use of biological agents to detoxify a contaminated environment” (Thangarajan et al., 2011). Thus, the noxious wastes of the oil spill can be effectively treated using microorganisms isolated and selected from the oil-contaminated environments to biodegrade the hydrocarbons in oil spill are a very promising technique for treatment of oil spills.

This paper will feature the function of certain species of bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis and their role in Bio-remediation. Biodegradation by natural population of microorganisms can be considered as one of the primary mechanism by which the oil spills which are rich in petroleum hydrocarbons can be eradicated from the environment. The major success of the oil spills bioremediation mainly depends on the nature of the hydrocarbons and one’s ability to maintain and establish the conditions that favors the growth of the microorganisms in the particular contaminated environment.

Therefore, the physical and the chemical characteristic of the oil and the oil spill area are the vital determinants in the bioremediation process. Thus, bioremediation encompasses the accelerated biodegradation in a natural way. Bioremediation techniques can be carried out in two different ways namely the in-situ or ex-situ methods. “In in-situ processes, the biological remediation is conducted at the contaminated site, whereas in ex-situ processes, the contaminated medium is extracted and processed off-site purification facilities.

” (Rezende et al, n.d). Thus, bioremediation involves the processes of biostimulation and bioaugmentation. The Phenomenon of biostimulation comprises of addition of nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous and thereby enhancing the growth of the microorganisms through adjusting the environmental conditions such as the temperature, moisture and aeration etc. Thus, most of the bacterial species such as Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Cornybacterium are able to degrade the contaminants effectively under favorable environmental conditions and enriched nutrient supply.

(Salami & Elum, 2008). On the other hand, the other phenomenon known as the bioaugmentaion where the microorganisms are able to degrade the specific oil spill contaminants namely the hydrocarbons are also being implemented. Therefore, bioremediation can be clearly understood as the phenomenon that exploits the microbial diversity and their metabolic versatility to convert noxious chemical oil spill contami