Bacteria to the Rescue

Bacteria to the Rescue

By: Laura Murillo

Over the course of time, society has become more and more dependent on oil as the main source of energy. With increasing demand, most of the oil has to be brought from overseas. The ocean is very unpredictable, and despite taking all the precautions possible, oil spills are bound to happen. Together, scientists and engineers have developed different techniques to attempt removing oil from the surface of the oceans. One of these approaches consists of encircling oil batches so that they become thick enough to allow a skimmer or vacuum to collect. Most of the methods like the one mentioned require a lot of man-power, money and time. That is one of the reasons Cheng and his team focused on oil-degrading bacteria, Brevibacillus parabrev. By coating the bacteria in a shell of magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (M-bacteria), they were able to encapsulate and isolate oil from water. The oil can then be removed by an external magnetic field, or it can be degraded by the same M-bacteria. One of the advantages of this approach is being able to recycle the magnetic nanoparticles, and the low cost of the bacterial cell fabrication. The possibilities are endless for this eco-friendly clean-up crew.

Figure 1. Graphical representation of M-bacteria encapsulating oil in water, then being separated by an outside magnetic field. Because of the bacteria's properties, the separated oil can be further broken down.

Original article:

Cheng, H., Li, Z., Li, Y., Shi, Z., Bao, M., Han, C., & Wang, Z. (2019). Multi-functional magnetic bacteria as efficient and economical Pickering emulsifiers for encapsulation and removal of oil from water. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.