VB591® water Used for Bioremediation of Oil Spills In order for products to be registered with the United States Environmental Protection Agency National Contingency Plan (NCP) Product Schedule, they must go through an efficiency evaluation (Federal Register Vol. 59, No. 178). The test is designed to measure biodegradation of crude oil in sea water in a worst-case scenario. VB591® was added to flasks containing Alaska crude oil and clean seawater. Before adding seawater, oil was prepared by being heated to 521° F to remove lighter hydrocarbons and kill all present microorganisms. The flasks were sealed and shaken until removed for sampling on days 7 and 28. The flasks were not aerated, making it increasingly difficult for microbes to reproduce as the test progressed. The test measured how well VB591® reduced total alkanes and total aromatics compared to a fertilizer mixture and the control group. The control group had no reduction and the fertilizer reduced aromatics by only 26 percent. VB591® reduced alkanes by 96.8 percent and aromatics by more than 73 percent. |