THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501250192
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 3B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Among the oldest living things, microbes have been quietly doing man's handwork for as long as humans have stood upright. Bakers rely on yeast to make bread and gardeners could not imagine a world without compost - made possible by multitudes of unseen bacteria.
Now auto mechanics are making use of microbes - helping them dispose of waste oil from engines and transmissions.
Heritage Transmissions, an Oceana company, has won the franchise rights to a product that claims to contain microbes that digest waste oils. By making use of organisms that are related to the kind oil companies spray on oil spills, the product also has allowed the local firm to make a dent in its waste oil disposal problems.
``They're eating oil and digesting it,'' said Mike Boyd, owner of Heritage Transmissions, on Virginia Beach Boulevard. ``Once digested, you can throw it out and it biodegrades itself. It's working just great. We're selling it all over the United States. We've shipped just a truckload of it.''
Although the idea is not new - these so-called bioremedial compounds have been around for about 15 years - they are becoming increasingly common as hazardous waste laws prohibit dumping untreated chemicals in municipal landfills.
The product remains unapproved for disposal in municipal landfills. Environmental scientists are studying how they work and whether they degrade oils fast enough so they won't worsen conditions that already exist in landfills.
``The Hampton Roads Sanitation District is looking at the literature and scratching their heads,'' Boyd said. ``We are waiting for an answer.''
The product is sold under two brand names, a semi-dry compound called Oil Sponge and a liquid form called Eliminator. Boyd clearly has high hopes for it: The back of his store is filled with plastic gallon jugs and pallets filled with 30-pound bags of the product.
The semi-dry version - it feels like damp sawdust - is a mixture of cotton filaments, ground pecan shells and several other inert ingredients along with the microbes that ingest the oils. The liquid form has the microbes suspended in a cleaning solution.
The microbes work simply enough. Once in contact with hydrocarbons found in oils, the microbes activate and begin to feed upon them, breaking the hydrocarbon chains into simpler carbon, carbon dioxide and water molecules.
How long it takes depends on the kind of oil under attack and how well suited the microbes are to the task. The reaction is not instant and takes at least 12 hours to show any measurable effect.
Before Boyd turned to biology to address his waste oil problems, he used traditional degreasers and a clay-based product that resembles kitty litter, the customary method of cleaning up shop spills. The clay version has drawbacks because it does not fully absorb oils and contains silica, which is technically a hazardous waste.
The cotton-based product, which costs about $20 for a 30-pound bag, claims to ``encapsulate'' oils by first soaking them into the fibers where the microbes can begin to work. To demonstrate this, Boyd soaked some transmission oil into the product, poured water on it, and then squeezed the mixture through a towel. The water emerged with no trace of oil.
``It's totally reusable, 100 percent. That's really it. And it works. We're tickled to death with it.''
Boyd said his workers have been using a 30-pound bag of the semi-dry product for about six months and it continues to absorb oil spills on the shop floor.
The microbes are reasonably durable and do not require special handling. But there are two caveats: do not freeze them and do not let them get too hot. With proper care, the dry version can be stored for up to 10 years, he said.
John Novak, a bioremediation expert and professor of civil engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, said the technique of using microbes to break down oils ``seems to work,'' but that much depends on the type of oil under attack and the way in which the microbes are supposed to work.
Petroleum products contain hundreds of compounds, some of which are water soluble and some of which evaporate easily. Once oils are mixed with, say, soil getting the microbes to work effectively depends on whether they have proper nutrition - they need more than just oil - and whether they have enough oxygen, he said.
Many bioremediation products will not work well if simply buried in the ground. The microbes don't have enough oxygen to work. But turning the soil over and over to keep the soil ventilated can be expensive.
``If you don't have oxygen in the system, the organisms won't work,'' he said.
Darryl Goodchild, vice president of marketing for PHase III Inc., the Arizona company that makes the microbes in Oil Sponge, said the microbes were first isolated about 14 years ago by Dr. Karl Offenheimer, of the University of Austin.
Offenheimer had been doing research in oil fields and noticed that when oil seeped to the ground it migrated to a point and then stopped.
Curious, he took soil samples and found a natural forming bacteria had formed. There are now about 12 companies in the United States and Canada that grow it.
``It's not a cure all,'' he said. ``It's not a magic potion, but it will help small businesses and independent shop owners in cutting their cleaning and disposal costs. Those can put small guys out of business.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Bioremedial compounds like Mike Boyd's Oil Sponge are coming into
use as the bans on dumping untreated chemicals in landfills
increase.
Mike Boyd, uses the compound in his shop, Heritage Transmissions. by CNB