winters@gumby.paradyne.com (John Winters) (12/16/89)
I have heard that a strain of psuedomonous bacteria have been developed that will eat up oil spills. What if these were injected into an oil well? What is the strain called? What does the latin psuedomonous mean? False what? Do they require any gasses to live and are these gasses present in oil wells? When these bacteria decompose, what would they turn into, back into oil? or gass? Could we convert oil wells into gas fields? Anyone for a wildcat gas venture? :)
BHB3@PSUVM.BITNET (12/18/89)
In article <6837@pdn.paradyne.com>, winters@gumby.paradyne.com (John Winters) says: > >I have heard that a strain of psuedomonous bacteria have been developed >that will eat up oil spills. What if these were injected into an oil well? > >What is the strain called? What does the latin psuedomonous mean? >False what? Do they require any gasses to live and are these gasses >present in oil wells? When these bacteria decompose, what would they >turn into, back into oil? or gass? Could we convert oil wells into >gas fields? > >Anyone for a wildcat gas venture? :) I have heard of the possible use of bacteria that will metabolize oil to help clean up oil spills. I doubt the use of bacteria would be competative with thermal catalytic cracking for converting liquid petroleum into gas(propane and butane). Brent H. Besler
werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner) (12/18/89)
In article <6837@pdn.paradyne.com>, winters@gumby.paradyne.com (John Winters) writes: > I have heard that a strain of psuedomonous bacteria have been developed > that will eat up oil spills. What if these were injected into an oil well? > They'd die. They need quite a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus to take advantage of their carbon source. Exxon showed up in Valdez that spraying fertilizer on the beach was quickest way to clean it up. You don't have to do any genetic engineering. There are already bacteria there that would be more than happy to eat the petroleum if you provided it with enough other "vitamins. Of course the catch is that so much fertilizer on the beach can have side effects, and apparently lack of an environmental impact statement kept them from doing more than several hundred square YARDS of beach as a demonstration project. One more drawback. This is such an aerobic process, the bacteria's feast only lasts for about the first inch or so down. -- Craig Werner (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go) werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517) "Meiguanxi ye meibanfa"