In December, a major fuel oil spill occurred after a storm damaged two tankers in the Kerch Strait. Murmansk scientists propose using bacteria and algae to help clean the sea.
According to the Transport Ministry, about 2,400 tonnes of oil products entered the Black Sea as the result of the fuel oil spill. This environmental catastrophe immediately attracted volunteers and the state. The Agency of Strategic Initiatives (ASI) reported twelve initatives to counter the effects of the spill, most of which were mechanical.
The Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has proposed a biological method using brown algae populated with bacteria to clean the spill in the Black Sea after the tanker wreck. The technology aims to utilise the metabolic potential of these organisms.
The core of the technology: after the oil spill, algae block the oil spill, preventing it from spreading, and immediately, with the help of bacteria, begin to process the resulting pollution.
—ASI's Press Service
The project involves installing vertical and horizontal ropes in areas polluted with fuel oil. Scientists will then weave algae onto the ropes, creating a 'live fence'. Microorganisms living in these plants have the ability to break down oil products, which are then absorbed by the algae. This contributes to the purification of seawater.
By absorbing oil products and filtering heavy metals, brown algae and the bacteria living on them do not wither but rather gain weight and even multiply. Fucus algae, which grow in the coastal waters of the Barents Sea, supply microorganisms with oxygen, increasing their activity by 20-30 per cent, and transform hydrocarbons, contributing to their absorption by the plant substrate.
It is believed that the use of this method will be effective after the majority of fuel oil has been collected and utilised through mechanical means.
Source: Hibiny
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