Bioremediation for marine oil spills

Technical Report · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5506132

The study examines the potential of bioremediation technologies to clean up marine oil spills and to minimize the damage they cause. Thus, the study evaluates a small, but highly visible, subset of the many possible applications of bioremediation technologies to environmental problems. Among the other applications for which bioremediation is being considered or is currently in use are: (1) treatment of nontoxic liquid and solid wastes; (2) treatment of toxic or hazardous wastes; (3) treatment of contaminated groundwater, and (4) grease decomposition. Although recent marine oil spills and bioremediation efforts have called attention to the potential of bioremediation as an oil spill response technology, some of the other applications, in particular the treatment of hazardous waste, appear to have greater potential. Officials at approximately 135 hazardous waste sites, for example, are now either considering, planning, or operating full-scale bioremediation systems.

• Research Organization: Office of Technology Assessment (U.S. Congress), Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5506132
• Report Number(s): PB-91-186197/XAB; OTA-BP-O-70
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Also available from Supt. of Docs
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OIL SPILLS
BIODEGRADATION
CLEANING
CONTAMINATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GREASES
GROUND WATER
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
LIQUID WASTES
MICROORGANISMS
NUTRIENTS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SOLID WASTES
SURFACE WATERS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION
US EPA
USES
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CONTROL
DECOMPOSITION
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LUBRICANTS
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION CONTROL
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES
WATER
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
540350 - Environment
Aquatic- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)