The science of Biostimulation
The usage of bacteria to clean water
What is Biostimulation?
Biostimulation is the use of bacteria to clean things. In our case, we'll be talking about Biostimulation to clean water. Biostimulation is a way to stimulate bacteria to reproduce heavily and eat the material the people doing it want to remove. The 'stimulators' pump in limiting nutrients (essential nutrients that exist in low amounts to a species) which makes the bacteria reproduce heavily. They then begin to eat the substance the stimulators want to remove (usually oil) which then removes almost all of it from the substance it was present in before (Water, Dirt, Rock).
Materials used
- Limiting Nutrients for a species of hydro carbon degrading bacteria
- Way to inject nutrients into the ground
Advantages and disadvantages of Biostimulation
+ and - Tech for Water
- Can be done with present bacteria
- Is cheap
- Can be used to clean up contaminant
+ and - Tech for Environment
- Easy to clean up oil and other pollutants
- Uses natural materials
- Don't need to add in anything not already present
+ and - Tech for Humans
- Advances in bacteria
- Makes oil less dangerous
- Uses less money for something very useful
Long Term effects
There are no long term effects of Biostimulation as the bacteria eventually die back to original population
Interesting facts
- The bacteria used in Biostimulation does not affect any animals
- This technology could have saved millions of animals lives if it was used during Gulf of Mexico disaster
Molasses
Molasses is one of the most commonly used materials to give the nutrients as it contains most of the ones they need
Bacteria
Special kinds of hydro carbon eating bacteria are used in Biostimulation