GPBIO Oil Spill Solution
Green Chemistry—bringing sustainability to chemical products and processes.
A potent eco-friendly hydrocarbon soil remediating solution for all oil, diesel, petrol, fuel and hydrocarbon associ-ated spills.
What is Bio Remediation?
Billions of years ago Mother Nature had already solved the problem of how to keep the Earth clean, naturally. Recent breakthroughs in science and technology have helped us to understand how this is made possible. By using the correct good or beneficial bacteria virtually any dirt build up, stain, odour, septic system, FOG’s (fats, oils, greases) or even hydrocarbon based oil stains can be safely cleaned, bio-degraded and removed quicker and more cost effectively than traditional harmful chemicals. Bioremediation refers to any method that uses mi-crobes (microorganisms) to recycle organic materials and sequester inorganic ions. Because the primary respon-sibility of microbes is to recycle organic materials, they must be present in sufficient quantities and diversity in order to do this.
Under carefully controlled conditions, bioremediation can be a practical and cost effective method to remove hy-drocarbons and other organics from contaminated surfaces and sub-surfaces. Bioremediation cleans up the envi-ronment by allowing living organisms to degrade or transform hazardous organic contaminants using natural
biology.
Augmentation or Stimulation
Bio-augmentation is the addition of naturally occurring microbes and to sites and is the quickest and best way to clean up petroleum contaminated sites. Bio-stimulation is the modification of sites to enhance the growth of indig-enous microbes already present. It may also clean up a site, but at a greater cost and much more time. This method is commonly used for open water oil spill response and exposes marine life to more harm than Bio-augmentation.
Essential Requirements:
Under optimal conditions, a single microbe can divide every 20-30 minutes and will live as long as conditions ex-ist within a range of 30 to 90 days. Once these conditions are no longer present, the microbes will die off, be eat-en by other microorganisms, or become dormant.
Operating Conditions:
1. Needs a food source to be present and available.
2. Takes place at the oil/water interface.
3. Activity is limited by oxygen (a residual of 1 ppm or more)
4. Requires inorganic nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium nutrients.
5. One microbe can utilize one cell weight of carbon per hour.
6. The water used to activate microbes can be either fresh or salt water.
7. It is an enzymatic process, wherein various enzymes effectively “cutup” the microbes and;
8. Directly related to the number of microbes present.
9. It is a transformation instead transportation.
10. The greater the surface area the faster the microbes work.
Process:
In order to have hyper-degradation (faster than normal) occur there must be a minimum of 1,000,000 oil degrad-ing microbes per gram of contaminant to override the indigenous population of microbes. Anything less and the bioremediation process becomes very slow, the more hydrocarbon degrading microbes present at the site of the spill, the faster and more efficient the remediation process. The only lab test required is a simple, quick, and inex-pensive biocompatibility test to determine if there are any substances present that would be toxic to the microbes, thus preventing them from doing their job.
Once a site is inoculated, the microbes quickly adapt to their new environment and begin the break-down of the pollutant. The speed with which this occurs is relative to the density of the needed microbe population. The micro-bial product is a consortium of billions hydrocarbon digesting microbes in various carriers, and since growth of the microbes is exponential, the pollutant is quickly and efficiently degraded, resulting in a faster treatment or closure. As in all products, water and oxygen must be present to allow the microbes to break down organic waste into car-bon dioxide, water, and soluble fatty acids. Fatty acids are a water soluble food for fish and plants.
GPBIO Oil Spill Solution microbial products (“microbes”) are a consortium of naturally occurring communities of aerobic and microaerophilic micro-organisms single cells ranging in size from 1 to 10 microns. When activated by water, they provide our customers the opportunity to activate the microbes at their convenience. Because mi-crobes are living assemblage, it must be understood that they can be destroyed by caustics, high concentrations of chlorine, some solvents, and chemicals. X-raying the microbes will kill and destroy them.
GPBIO Oil Spill Solution microbes employ the concept of aerobic co-metabolism by using multiple strains of micro-organisms. Other conditions must be taken into account, such as pH, temperature, salinity, type of contaminant, etc.
Health & Safety:
- Microbes are collected from naturally occurring sources.
- Potential pathogens to man, animals, or plants are excluded by the cultivation of our microbes in a proprie-tary process.
- Our microbes are routinely analysed for dangerous and toxic microorganisms, and are human, animal and plant pathogen free.
- Extensive laboratory and field tests have documented the efficiency, safety and reliability of the products.
Features:
- 5+ year shelf life
- Non-toxic
- Odourless
- Aerobic-requires oxygen
- pH of 7 - 7,2
- Boiling point 100°C
- Freezing point 0 ºc calculated
Application:
Spill Control:
- Liberally apply the product with mop and allow the solution to remain on the surface for 1-2 minutes, with a wet mop agitate the solution into the surface in a figure 8 motion.
- Remove excess water with damp mop and allow product to air dry.
- Disposal of unwanted mixture can be poured into waste pipes, drains and sewerage systems, as the en-zymes and microbes will keep on converting the oils and grease inside these areas, into carbon dioxide and water.
Spray-N-Wipe:
- Spray directly onto surface, allow product to remain on the surface for 30-60 seconds, then agitate with a scrubbing brush or scourer.
- Wipe clean with cloth.
Pressure Washing:
- Remove excess dirt from surface or equipment.
- Fill spray gun bottle with the product.
- Spray product onto all washable surfaces and allow product to dwell for 3-5 minutes.