Oil eating enzymes & oil degrading bacteria

[Mmagerko]

Hey Science Buddies!

For this year's science fair, I've taken an interest in oil spills.
I recently found this article http://www.businessinsider.com/chythany ... lls-2014-9 about the different combinations of oil eating enzymes and oil degrading bacteria used to remove oil while at the same time preserving marine life. I'm very interested in doing something similar to this.

I'm having trouble figuring out how and where I would obtain oil eating enzymes and oil degrading bacteria, the ratio of the mixtures, and how long they would take to remove the oil.

So far, my plan is to measure oxygen levels in an small aquarium filled with oil and different combinations of oil eating enzymes + oil degrading bacteria. If you could answer some of these questions, or give me some guidance I would truly appreciate it!

Marla

[MrsDez]

Hi,

This would be a fun and interesting experiment.

I don't have the exact answer to your concerns:

I'm having trouble figuring out how and where I would obtain oil eating enzymes and oil degrading bacteria, the ratio of the mixtures, and how long they would take to remove the oil.

I did find this project idea on ScienceBuddies to help you with your background research.

[Crazy_Mad_Scientist]

Hi Marla,

You have an excellent science fair idea this year!

Chythanya Murali was working with bacteria that can produce enzymes that break down oil spills. Generally, pure enzymes are difficult to find without access to a lab, and are very expensive. oil-degrading bacteria, on the other hand, can also be very expensive if you looking to find pure cultures.

A good alternative would be to see if you can find bacteria cultures capable of degrading oil in common water samples.

I would personally collect samples of pond, lake, and ocean water. Swab each sample and plate them on petri dishes, to determine what kind of bacteria live in the water. Then, add crude oil to each water sample and leave in test tubes for a period of time. Re-swab the water (containing the crude oil) to determine what bacteria thrives in oil-contaminated water. This way, you can isolate bacteria that are able to survive in oil-contaminated water, and possibly have oil-degrading enzymes.

At this point, you can also measure how much crude oil is left to see if the bacteria thriving in the water is actually cleaning up the oil.

You should definately do some readings on how to isolate bacteria for this project too .

I hope this helps!
CMS

[MrsDez]

Hi,

This would be a fun and interesting experiment.

I don't have the exact answer to your concerns:

I'm having trouble figuring out how and where I would obtain oil eating enzymes and oil degrading bacteria, the ratio of the mixtures, and how long they would take to remove the oil.

I did find this project idea on ScienceBuddies to help you with your background research.

Sorry, I forgot to attach the link, here it is:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... oil-spills

Also, Crazy_Mad_Scientist posted some excellent ideas!

Hope this all helps

[Mmagerko]

Hey!

Thanks for your replies, I really appreciate them.

A couple science programs near me, including ones from USC, have given students at my high school an opportunity to work in their lab this year. Hopefully, I will get accepted into their program. If that doesn't work out, I will take into account your suggestion for the bacteria cultures.

Thanks,
Marla