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Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria Essay

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1.0 Description of Issue / Problem:
People nowadays are getting more concerning about issues regarding environmental pollutions. One of the environmental issues is the oil spill incident. According to the article ‘Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria: The Oil-Spill Clean-Up Crew’, there are about 1.3 million litres of crude oil flow into the ocean every year. This is devastating as it causes great damage to the environment and brings severe problems to living organisms including humans. Most of the oil spill incidents are caused by the negligence and irresponsible acts of humans. The oil may spill into the sea from oil drilling industries, tanker shipping, illegal activities and ship accidents. The oil spilled will float on the surface of water and …show more content…

They finally came out with one finding, which is the oil-eating bacteria, Alcanivorax borkumensis. Alcanivorax borkumensis is a special bacterium that has the ability to degrade hydrocarbons. It exists and can be found almost everywhere in the nature especially oceans and freshwater (Lena C., 2010). It consumes oil as the source of energy for growth and reproduction. It breaks down hydrocarbons by undergoing the process of respiration. Besides, although oil-eating bacteria are rarely found in uncontaminated seas, it is able to colonize the whole microbial system in a short time when there is an oil spill (David R., 2010). In other words, the number of oil-eating bacteria increases gradually when their food, the hydrocarbon is found. In some cases of oil spills, when the oxygen level available at the affected area is relatively very low, the bacteria is still capable of digesting the hydrocarbons anaerobically, in a slower rate. Therefore, the cleanup crew will apply nitrogen fertilizer on the affected area as the nutrient for oil-eating bacteria so that they can break down the hydrocarbons in a faster rate. In short, the oil-eating bacteria are considered as the best solution to overcome the problems of oil spill as it is fully natural and

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