What is OilZapper? How it clean Oil Spill?

What is OilZapper?

There is a new technique developed by TERI(The Energy and Resource Institute, Govt of India) to clean the oil spill by using a bacteria.This process Oil zapping is used for bio-remediation process.It was most recently used to clean oil spill at Mumbai shore.There was a oil spill happened there in August 2010.There was collision between a cargo and merchant ship resulting in 400 tons of oil leaked in the sea.

The Maharashtra pollution board uses the service of TERI to clean oil sludge near the coast of Mumbai.

How does it work?

There are 5 different bacterial strains that are immobilized and mixed with carrier materials with powdered corncob.This mixture of bacteria is called oil Zapper.Oilzapper reacts with hydrocarbon matrials present in the oil spill and oil sludge ( A hazards waster produce by oil refineries companies like Bharat petroleum or ONGC) and converts them into harmless CO2 and water.

If we go back to history we can see during gulf war this is a big issue as lot of crude oil spill in the river and contaminated living organism in water.Channels like NGC and discovery shown a lot of reports on it and horrible pictures.This war made Indian government to direct its agency to look a solution for problem like this.They instructed Delhi based Tata energy research institute to start research into this and find possible solutions.

The TERI scientist then start their testing on how to develop some kind of bacteria which fed on these chemical substance and clean it up.Using a famous book by Dr Ananda Chakraborthy as a pointer they developed a bacteria which is sledge reducing agent and kill all hydrocarbons which an oil contains.

So TERI after a research of 6 years with help of department of Biotechnology came up with a product better known as Oilzapper ( As it has bacteria which zap the oil).I guess the name Oilzapper came from concept that this chemical zapp or kill the Oil.They demonstrated it by cleaning most of the oil sledge left by oil refineries companies in Mumbai,Mathura, baruwani.They removed the oil sledge which spread in quantity of around 5000 tonnes. The oil companies which never bothers about the oil wastges they produced, but they are now looking for this technology.This technology gave a new hop for oil companies.For example an oil refineries in Digboi(Assam) has given a notice by Assam pollution control board to close its factory.It is now turned to oilzapper to clean its oil sledge which spread around a large area and harming farming land.

The point which should be noted here is nature has its own techniques to eats up the bugs which spread because of oil wastage, but it takes a long time.Oilzapper helps its to multiply itself.Oil companies are really excited about it as it helps them to save a lot of money and also fight from environmental danger.Presently oil companies are using a technique called container.They keep all the wastage in that and it will decompose slowly.It is a costly affair as each container costs around 10 million.OilZapper gave a cheaper option for oil sledge.

TERI a Govt of India Enterprise has given the license to Sriram biotech ltd hyderabad to produce Oilzapper.According to one estimates we need around 20 tonnes of Oilzapper annually for oil wastage in India.

The packaging of OilZapper is in sterile polythene bags and sealed safely for its transport.Its expiry is of 3 months from the date of packaging at normal temperature.

So now with oilzapper rest is assure that even after a mishap of oil leaks, the environment is not in danger and there is somebody who will eat up all the bugs left by oil sledge.