Bioremediation
Hazardous waste spills can occur in tank farms, truck docks, near leaking underground storage tanks, rail yards, and numerous other locations. In most cases the spilled contaminant is some form of oil or fuel. While small spills are amenable to excavation and land filling, many spills are either very expensive due to volume of contaminated soil or in areas where excavation is difficult.

Bioremediation has been used for many years to naturally clean soils in place. Besides generally lowering treatment costs, bioremediation lowers risks associated with transporting and land filling potentially hazardous materials. The main drawback to bioremediation is the time required for cleaning the soil through microbial action.

Aster Bio helps alleviate this problem by adding concentrated active degraders to the site. Coupled with proper nutrients, aeration, and moisture, the bacteria are truly remarkable in their efficiency. Most sites can be remediated within 10 to 60 days, in most cases depending upon contaminant concentration and environmental conditions, at a cost substantially less than excavation and land filling.

Recent Project
The results from a recent project demonstrate the power of microbes to clean up waste sites. Aster Bio was asked by a food processing company to help remediate a small retention pond filled with a mixture of water, peanut oil and potato starch. The company supplied us with a water sample for bench-scale analysis.

The untreated sample had 20% used peanut oil and 15% potato starch by volume. The pH had fallen to 3.0 and background biological activity was minimal. This water sample is on the left in the following photo:

Treatment included the use of Oleozyme, sodium carbonate to increase pH to 7.0, and fertilizer to provide nitrogen and phosphorus needed for bacterial growth. The sample was mixed for 10 minutes 3x daily to simulate a poorly mixed lagoon. No surfactant or aeration was added. The treated water sample is on the right in the above photo.

After 20 days, the treated sample had no free oil on the surface and the water color had changed to a healthy rich brown color seen in high MLSS wastewater systems. When mixed the biosurfactant produced by bacterial growth created a moderate foam on the surface.

With a protocol developed from the bench-scale test results, the site was remediated in a matter of weeks.