Chula Faculty of Science has developed bioproducts to clean up oil spills in the ocean from their research on oil-eating microbes while getting ready to expand to industrial-scale production for ecological sustainability.
The crude oil spill from the subsea oil pipeline in Rayong province in early 2022 was another major incident that devastated the marine ecosystem while continuing to affect the economy and tourism. Although various agencies have tried to remove oil residue from the ocean surface, and along the coast, there is still some residual pollution that will adversely affect the environment and marine life in the long run. university in thailand
One of the solutions for eliminating residual pollutants is oil-eating microbes. The research and development of bioproducts with clean technology by the Specialization Center of Excellence in Microbial Technology for Marine Pollution Treatment, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, under the supervision of Associate Professor Dr. Onruthai Pinyakong, has been researching and developing innovative bioproducts to remove oil contaminants from the sea, aiming at commercial production to ensure a sufficient number of products in case of similar incidents in the future.
Origins of the concept of bioproduct to remove oil spills in the sea
As an environmental microbiologist, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onruthai has been interested in the contamination from oil and petroleum and has worked on environmental pollutants degradation. And in the past, there have been frequent oil spills at sea, some of which made the news and some didn’t.
“Usually, managing oil spills starts with the use of physical methods, such as using oil booms, then removing oil from the area, or spraying oil dispersants. Either way, a biodegradation process follows. However, the limitation of the biodegradation process is the slow pace and unpredictability. So, if we can accelerate the biodegradation process after the physical treatment, it should help to restore the environment, while reducing the impact on the organisms in the ecosystem.”
When the key problem lies in the biodegradation process, an expert in microbials, such as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onruthai does not fail to think of “oil-eating microbes” that can biodegrade the residual oil pollutants in the environment as well as toxic substances in other types of oil.
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