A Japanese construction firm, Taisei Corporation, has developed a soil bioremediation technique that offers a less expensive and environmentally benign response to soil that has been contaminated by oil. The new technique employs bacteria that can breakdown hydrocarbon molecules into small innocuous compounds.
Certain strains of soil-dwelling bacteria naturally degrade oil. Through rigorous matching and mixing researchers at the corporation have arrived at the combination of nutrients that best encourage the right bacteria to proliferate and cleanse the soil. The company claims that dirt could be treated at the cost of US $182 per cubic metre, about one-third the cost of the conventional digging and burning method.
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