Page 1

Oil Spill clean-up

Man made solutionsNatural solutions – Bioremediators

Page 2

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spillalso known as the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill or the BP Oil Spill is the largest marine oil spill in history, and was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi River delta on April 20, 2010 

Page 3

Chemical dispersants

Designed to break oil up into tiny droplets.Easier for oil to break downDispersants did not work in Gulf of Mexico

Page 4

Mechanical meansOil booms – floating barriers to catch

surface oil.

Page 5

Skimmer

• sucks up oil that is floating on surface

Page 6

Absorbent booms

• Soaks up oil or fuel spills

Page 7

Disc skimmer• Spinning discs pick up oil and sling it into a catch

basin in center where it is pumped to storage containers link, another link,

Page 8

Brush Skimmer

• Brushes rotate in oil and pick oil up and deposit in a trough where it is pumped away link

Page 9

Other solutions

Soak up the oil with straw

Mushrooms eat oil

Page 10

Phytoremediation• is the removal of contaminates

from soil by plants.• the microbes which thrive

among plant root systems are vital to the process.

Page 11

Bioremediation of Methane• In June - elevated methane concentrations, no microbial methane

chomping microbes.• September - unusually “high relative abundances” of methane

eating microbes and the methane gas had virtually disappeared!• oil spill released between 7.3 to 10.1 billion cubic feet of methane• a whole lot of methane chomping action must have been “go’in on” • This is bioremediation at its best!

Page 12

Did you also know, under perfect laboratory conditions, a single bacterium cell could multiply to become a sextillion in less than 24 hours (one sextillion is written 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)?

Texas bioremediation experiment video

Page 13

Nature’s Oil RecyclersQuestions (page 48)

1. What does bioremediation mean?2. How many different species of bacteria are there that

can break down crude oil?3. What have scientists discovered helps the bacteria?4. How long does it take for bacteria to break down oil

compared to natural processes?