Natural Cleanup

August / September 2009 Volume 7 Number 4

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As the petroleum needs of the U.S. and other industrial nations continue to grow, environmental issues associated with increased production will likewise develop. Enter BioTiger—„ It's a patented biocatalyst developed by the Savannah River National Laboratory for accelerated cleanup of the environment. It consists of natural microbial consortium that thrives on metabolizing hydrocarbons. In addition to providing an effective, environmentally friendly, and affordable means of remediating sites polluted with petroleum products, BioTiger has also been shown to be highly effective for increasing oil recovery from oil sands without added chemicals.
This technology was first used to remediate one of the three sludge lagoons on the site of the Czor oil refinery in Poland. The cleanup of the refinery produced dramatic results, with 81 percent of the contaminants destroyed in 18 months. Several years ago, this oil refinery was named as one of the 80 worst-polluted sites in Poland. Today it is known as the "Green Refinery."
The use of BioTiger requires no material removal, aeration or addition of fertilizers, although the process can be further accelerated by these techniques. The effective remediation of contaminated sites in situ by BioTiger is a major benefit; remediation techniques that require the removal of the contaminated materials create environmental hazards elsewhere and incur high transportation and storage costs.
The biocatalyst addresses one of the most fundamental limitations of bioremediation—€”the viability of the bacteria under harsh environmental conditions including high acidity and low temperatures to perform remarkably well.
Given the ability of BioTiger to rapidly breakdown hydrocarbons, researchers were eager to see how it would work for applications such as enhanced oil recovery. Early tests have shown a four-fold improvement in separation of bitumen from tar sand samples secured from the Athabasca Mining region in Alberta, Canada. This technology could play a major role in the ability to improve the breakdown of bitumen in the tar sands and ultimately enhance the extraction rates of the billions of barrels of oil anticipated to be entrapped within the Alberta oil sands.
—€”SRNL