I hate to be a fearmonger (really I do). I'm a fact-driven guy, on most occasions. But this new plan on the Bio-drawing boards, has me a little worried. Especially considering the "kitchen sink" approach, that has been taken so far, to help "disperse" the mess in the Gulf ...
If only this tale was from 'The Onion' ...
Microbes developing appetite for oil
Evolugate seeks approval to use its life forms to help clean up the Gulf oil spill.
By Anthony Clark, Business editor, gainesville.com -- Monday, June 7, 2010
A Gainesville startup company is developing "designer microbes" specially tailored to the Gulf oil spill in hopes of helping cleanup efforts.
Evolugate LLC has developed a technology to speed the process of evolution in microbes used to create biofuel and to control insects. In recent weeks, it has turned its attention to cleaning the Gulf oil spill.
[...]
Once the microbes are ready, Evolugate will need approval from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Well, at least, the EPA will need to give the Green Light first ...
Today's Microbe News continues ...
Microbes developing appetite for oil
Then it [Evolugate] will need a customer. That could be BP, a state agency or a local municipality with a cleanup site, Lyons said.
The company says its technology will create more effective methods of oil cleanup than current methods.
Those methods include dumping nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and iron into the environment to feed naturally occurring microbes that eat oil.
That method speeds the natural breakdown of oil threefold, Lyons said. The problem is it also feeds microbes that don't eat oil, including some that are pathogens.
Another method is to introduce microbes that are not natural to a particular area but have worked with oil spills in other areas. Lyons said that is less effective since nonindigenous microbes often don't grow because they are not adapted to that area's temperature, salinity or oxygen levels.
Evolugate has sampled the Gulf oil spill and is gradually adapting microbes native to the Gulf to that specific environment.
Once the oil is gone, depriving the microbes of their food source, other native flora will out-compete them and they will likely become extinct, Lyons said.
The microbes also are learning to eat the chemical dispersant being used on the oil spill.
"Not only is the composition of this dispersant a mystery, no one knows how it will biodegrade," he said.
The microbes would have to be adapted separately for each contaminated site.
WOW -- those little buggers will clean up the Corexit too, Trademarks and All. Perhaps it would have made more sense though -- not to have used that toxic Dispersant, in such massive quantities, in the first place? One wonders.
It's not that I'm against Biotech, per se -- it just that I worry about the rapid application, of any new technology, without adequate safety testing, or without a serious vetting by scientific experts from many different fields.
Of course, WHO has time for such niceties ... When your Town harbor is awashed in Crude, you just might order a few truckfuls of those Oil-eating Microbes.
"What the Hey!" Mayor Quigley, was quoted as saying, before placing his Overnite Order for Oil-be-Gone(TM).
And now for some more on the nitty gritty, on how Evolugate, plans to create their Designer-Algae -- and frankly it sounds, pretty safe to me -- it sounds like they 'know their stuff' ...
But WHAT DO I Know -- I'm a Database guy, NOT a Marine Biologist!
Evolugate Launches Bioremediation Project To Mitigate The Gulf Oil Spill
Posted : Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:30:35 GMT
Author : PRWeb -- earthtimes.org
Category : Press Release
What is bioremediation and what are its limitations? Oil-eating microbes are found naturally throughout the ocean and bioremediation is the process of allowing these microbes to naturally break down oil of anthropogenic origin. The problem with simply allowing these microbes to do their work is that they do so too slowly to prevent oil from doing significant environmental and economic damage. Sometimes this is because the natural flora is not accustomed to certain components of a particular spill and sometimes it is because the environment lacks other nutrients like oxygen. To solve these problems, researchers have turned to augmenting the native flora with microbes that can degrade components refractory to natural biodegradation or that can work efficiently without oxygen. However, this approach has been largely ineffective mainly because these non-native microbes are not adapted for the specific environmental conditions of a particular spill, such as water temperature, salinity, pH or oxygen concentration.
EVOLUGATE, LLC is taking a unique and groundbreaking approach to this problem by pre-adapting communities of petroleum-degrading microbes to both actual oil samples taken from contaminated sites in the Gulf and the specific environmental conditions where those samples were found. The result is a microbial community perfectly adapted for the rapid and efficient biodegradation of specific contaminated sites.
How does EVOLUGATE produce these oil-eating microbes? The key to effective bioremediation of the Gulf oils pill is the abandonment of the "one-size-fits-all" approach to the problem. In essence, there is no magic bullet microbe capable of rapidly degrading all oil spills in any environment. Rather, effective microbes must be tailored for the unique crude oil composition and environmental conditions of affected areas of the Gulf. Only EVOLUGATE, LLC, with its patented methodology for adapting microbes to new environmental conditions and food sources, can produce "designer" strains custom-made for remediating sensitive areas of the Gulf.
More importantly, the EVOLUGATE method produces variants of naturally occurring marine microbes so the strains released into the environment are not GMOs. In summary, EVOLUGATE is capable of quickly procuring "designer" microbial communities that are both highly capable of degrading a real-world oil spill and of doing so as rapidly as possible and with minimal lingering impact on the environment.
Star Trek move over, the 21st Century -- HAS Arrived at EVOLUGATE!
Here's what a REAL Marine Scientist has to say on the topic of Oil-eating Microbes and Bioremediation.
Caution, and further Analysis and discovery, seem to be her watchwords.
Gulf Oil Blog
UGA Dept of Marine Science
Hide and seek: Q&A
By Samantha Joye, June 6, 2010
How serious is the oxygen depletion problem?
Potentially, this is a very serious problem. At present, oxygen concentrations exceed 2 mg/L but if concentrations drop below that, it would spell problems for any oxygen requiring organisms. The Southwest Plume is, at a minimum, 15 miles long x 2 miles long and the plume is about 600 feet thick. Temperatures in the plume are about 8-12ºC. We do not know the absolute oil content at this time. [...]
How much biodegredation appears to being observed for the oil plumes?
There is a tremendous amount of oxygen consumption in the plumes. We have measured respiration rates in the plumes, above and below the plumes, and at control sites where plumes are not present. The respiration rates in the plume are at least 5-10 times higher than we see anywhere else.
Are the conditions good for the microbes that can degrade these types of hydrocarbons?
Right now, conditions seem to be ideal for microbial degradation. But we need to do additional lab experiments to figure out what is regulating microbial activity.
Are the concentrations of the hydrocarbons so great that the microbes are over-whelmed or killed?
We have not yet measured toxicity but we plan to do that when we get back to the lab at UGA.
[...]
Re: sulfonate detergent micelles: what effect does this ionic packaging have on accessibility to the oil of bacteria doing the bioremediation?
Unfortunately, no one knows the answer to this question and it is a KEY question that we need to know the answer to.
A Detergent Micelle:
What is a Micelle?
A micelle is formed when a variety of molecules including soaps and detergents are added to water. [...]
The molecule must have a strongly polar "head" and a non-polar hydrocarbon chain "tail". When this type of molecule is added to water, the non-polar tails of the molecules clump into the center of a ball like structure, called a micelle, because they are hydrophobic or "water hating".
The polar head of the molecule presents itself for interaction with the water molecules on the outside of the micelle.
A Detergent Micelle, trapping, dispersing, a foreign Substance, like Oil:
Kind of sounds like Nature's own version of these pint-size Oil-consumers, might be up to the job of "bio-degrading the Oil" -- that is if they don't run out of Oxygen and Iron first, according to Dr Samantha Joye. But she wants more study, regarding the underwater plumes, including their chemistry, and microbe activity.
In any event, sounds like this Topic of BioRemediation that EVOLUGATE is rushing to market, might warrant a bit more "oversight" -- before their new and improved "Designer versions" are unleashed on the world, assuming that eventual EPA Stamp of Approval of course --
But what do I know, I thought the same thing about Corexit (it was rushed to market too soon), but apparently "dire circumstances call for dire solutions", in this high-tech, fast-paced, too-busy to-know-zilch about-anything world, we live in these days.
PS. I'm not trying to frighten folks -- only trying to inform.
Knowledge is power -- but only if we have it, and only if we use it, as informed citizens should.
Isn't the pace of Progress -- Fun!
(that's a rhetorical question)
Peace out.