Biorefineries using waste – production of energy and chemicals from biomasses by micro-organisms - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 238

Oil burning causes a remarkable portion of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. It also causes
sulfur and nitrogen emissions, acidifying forests. Gasoline and diesel are the greatest polluters of
air in cities. Oil accidents contaminate waters and soil.
Oil spill can cause serious impacts on coastal areas (Gråsten and Kiukas, 2004). Marine
organisms may be affected by oil in several ways. For example in Finland, having around 5.4M
inhabitants, roughly 2000 oil accidents take place annually. Majority of these causes only small
amounts of oil leaking to the environment. Cases that are more serious amount around 160 per
year, and can cause problems:

• as a result of physical contamination
• by toxic effects of chemical components
• by accumulation of substances.

Physical contamination by hydrocarbon components is the main threat to marine organisms
and habitats after an oil spill (Hänninen and Rytkönen, 2004). The most endangered organisms
are those living near shoreline or sea surface, such as seabirds, marine mammals and fish during
their spawning season
Most oil accidents are happening due to various over-fillings, leaks and damaged oil tanks
(Veriö, 1990). Over-fillings are usually relating to filling oil tanks in houses or otherwise trans-
ferring fuel from a tank to another, such as when fuelling cars. Leaks are caused for example
by heat expansion and corrosion of old oil tanks. Oil tank damage happens in traffic accidents.
The costs for remediation of the current with oil contaminated land areas during 2005-2025 have
been estimated in Finland (Järvinen and Salonen, 2004). Oil contaminated sites, caused by fuel
delivery in service stations as well as oil accidents relating to heating of buildings is estimated
to cause total costs of 37M Euro in this time period. In addition, there will be costs from other
sites, where oil has been partially causing the contamination.
Options for cleaning up oily disasters may soon be more cutting-edge. New sponges, microbes,
and chemicals are in development that could change the ways we respond to oil spills. Some
microbial preparations naturally break down petroleum, and several companies are working on oil-
eating superbugs, which have been genetically altered to devour a spill more efficiently (Kaufman,
2010). Again, in this context it could be recommendable to choose mixed microbial cultures from
e.g. environmental safety reasons.
Oil-eating microbes are selective with respect to their substrates. They go after the most simply
shaped oil molecules first, because smoother shapes are easier to nibble on than more complex,
jagged oil molecules (Dell'Amore, 2010). Waste oil materials are also potential co-substrates for
bio industries.
Many of the bacteria are grown in high-nutrient conditions in the laboratory but when the
microbes are added to the salty, lower-nutrient environment of the ocean or coastline, they die
immediately. Other research is looking after bacteria that already live in ocean conditions but do
not naturally crave crude oil as a substrate. Mixed microbial cultures are able to utilize substances
otherwise hardly degradable.
Still, many experts are warning that even when high-tech cleaners become available, oil-spill
response will continue to be a messy, hard job. Consequently, spill prevention, not damage control,
should always be a top priority (Kaufman, 2010).

13.6 BENEFICIAL IMPACT ON THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURES OF THE NEW,
SMALL OR MEDIUM SIZED BIOINDUSTRIES

Research findings reveal a high potential of bio industries for economic development and job
growth, especially in the logging sector and in rural regions (Bailey et al. , 2011). Bioelectricity
production may have relatively large impacts on the energy security in developing countries
(Campbell and Block, 2010).