A Revolution in Bioremediation

Although bioremediation holds great promise for dealing with intractable environmental problems, it is important to recognize that much of this promise has yet to be realized.

F.H. Chapelle

from U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet FS-054-95

Perhaps it was exactly this sort of comment that inspired Nordevco Associates to create a revolution in bioremediation.

Over the past 15 years Nordevco has been working toward solving the issues affecting the successful transfer of theoretical or lab based bioremediation to the widespread use of bioremediation in the field. Three decades ago “bioremediation” stormed onto the environmental front as the “natural” solution to our environmental woes. However within a short time it fell out of favour as replicability in the field from the lab was limited.

Identifying the barriers and limitations that prevented replicability, the team at Nordevco was able to develop BactiDomus™, a unique delivery module that overcame the previous limitations that bioremediation faced. This was the revolution the scientific community was seeking.

By identifying and facing these limitations head-on, Nordevco’s development team was able to address each limitation and overcome it.

The history of bioremediation shows that industry researchers had pointed out that the problem with bioremediation was the exogenous nature of most applications and they rallied in favour of the use of indigenous bacteria to assist in the battle against the contaminants. The focus then shifted to the stimulation of indigenous bacteria.

Unfortunately this approach, while well intended, was unable to bring bioremediation into the mainstream. Indigenous bacteria were often not available, or unavailable in sufficient numbers, to deal with the issues they were assigned to face. Then the loyal defenders of bioremediation circled their wagons and exhorted the benefits of trying to bioengineer bacteria to compensate for the issues this approach was facing. Once again bioremediation was faced with a set back, as bioengineering faced challenges from a number of fronts.

Through all this the environmental community still believed that bioremediation was the best, safest and possibly the most cost effective way to treat organic pollution and contaminants. The only thing that was needed was a way to overcome some of the basic challenges to the technology. How can we protect the bacteria from the toxic environment in which they are placed so that they can survive and act on more complex and concentrated contaminants? How do we provide sufficient nutrients to the bacteria in a timely and effective manner to ensure the robust start up of organisms so they can survive and propagate? How do we combine inherently antagonistic bacteria and get them to work together to act on a consortium of contaminants? If we could solve these issues we would have “a revolution in bioremediation”.

The team at Nordevco understood that mortality rates were not a function of indigenous versus exogenous bacteria, they understood that bacteria required a strong start and protection from the toxicity of the environment in which they were placed and they understood that contaminants rarely operated in isolation and that for an effective outcome bacteria had to be able to co-exist with their antagonistic counterparts.

The Nordevco team circled their own wagons and began the task of solving these specific issues. The theory was simple: provide an environment for the bacteria to prosper that dealt with these specific issues. Create a safe “home” for the bacteria where they could prosper, multiply and be protected from the environment and their predators. The result: BactiDomus™, a carrier that would act as a delivery vehicle for the bacteria, that would provide it’s initial nutrients and would protect it from toxicity and predators.

Today Nordevco Associates has taken its proprietary BactiDomus™ technology around the globe and has applied it in numerous fields. Nordevco’s research and development arm has created solutions for the management of sewage sludge, the treatment of sewage and wastewater, the improved operating efficiency of existing waste treatment facilities, and the cost effective management of organic waste in the fields of agriculture and aqua-culture, and the effective care of recreational land and water.

Nordevco has applied its solutions and techniques to the remediation of such pollutants as PAHs and other petroleum hydrocarbons, BTEX, PCBs, chlorinated solvents, and pesticides like DDT and Toxaphene .

Nordevco has worked with and continues to work with a broad range of companies including livestock producers, multinational oil companies, utilities and large engineering consulting companies in addressing organic pollution problems.