Eco- friendly zappers to eat up oil slick

INDIAN Oil Corporation ( IOC) is rushing a team armed with oil- eating
natural bacteria to tackle the oil spillage at Paradip from the ship
Black Rose that sank near the port on September 9. Anand Kumar,
director ( R& D) said IOC has developed special bacteria at its R& D
centre in Faridabad, which feed on oil and reduce it to eco- friendly
natural soil.

These " oil zappers" have been developed to eat up the oily sludge
that is left as waste in the companys refineries after crude oil has
been refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG.
Kumar said the bacteria are very effective on land. " We are confident
that portions of the oil slick that have reached the shoreline will be
neutralized in a matter of days through this " biomediation"
technology," he added.

IOC has also developed a strain of bacteria that can operate under
saline conditions in the laboratory. However, these have not been
tried out at sea. So, the current crisis will also provide the team
with an opportunity to test the bacteria on the spillage that is
floating on the sea and has not come to the shore.

The IOC team will first assess the situation and see how much of the
bacteria are required. The bio- reactors at the Faridabad R& D centre
will then be used to produce the requisite quantity.Samples of the oil
slick will also be taken and sent back to the R& D centre to improve
the effectiveness of the strains while the operation to contain the
oil spillage is on.

He said IOCs R& D centre has vast experience in containing and
controlling oil sludge.Around 70,000 tonnes of oil sludge has been
treated successfully at the IOC refineries since 1995 when the
technology was first introduced.Kumar has informed Paradip Port Trust
chairman K. Raghuramaiah that the IOC team will reach Paradip on
Friday.

IOC had got in touch with the port authorities as fears of a major
environmental hazard have arisen over the oil leaking from the
ship.This eco- friendly technology developed jointly by IOC and TERI
has won a UK award in 2003. Efforts are also being planned to contain
the spread of oil on the high seas by restricting it to particular
manageable spots.

This " oilivorous" technology consisting of natural bacteria is safer
to handle as it has no disease- causing organisms.The technology
available works extremely well on oil spillage on land as the
specialized bacteria cultured in the laboratory remain localized and
attached to the targeted molecules of hydrocarbon.

However, extending the same application on aquatic or marine systems
where the conditions are altogether different in terms of nature of
medium ( microbes doesn't thrive and survive effectively in saline
water) requires a more focused approach and specialized
application.Currently, IOC and TERI are working on an Indo- Australian
joint project to extend the scope of the technology to aquatic and
marine systems as India has a large coastal belt and numerous sea
ports that handle transportation of crude oil and petroleum products.