Aerobic Bioremediation cleans MTBE, TBA and Gasoline.

CL Solutions, world leader in the aerobic bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents in soil and ground water, announces a significant breakthrough in the remediation of MTBE, TBA and gasoline.

CL Solutions’ product, Petrox 1, has been improved to aggressively target MTBE, TBA and gasoline in soil and groundwater.

CL Solutions has developed Petrox 1, an aerobic Bioinoculant, designed to rapidly clean up soil and ground water contaminated with methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), tert-butanol (TBA) and gasoline. This aerobic microbial mixture was developed to meet the growing need for remediation of soil and ground water contaminated with oxygenated gasoline, widely distributed since the early 1990’s following regulatory revisions to the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that as many as 9,000 community wells in 31 states may be contaminated from as many as 250,000 leaking tanks.

The most frequently used oxygenate has been MTBE, which contains some tert-butanol. TBA is also a byproduct from the degradation of MTBE. Both compounds are particularly difficult contaminants for groundwater because they are selectively extracted from the gasoline into water.

In addition, the oxygenated compounds travel more rapidly, thus contaminating a wider and deeper area than the hydrocarbon components of gasoline. MTBE and TBA are widely used in industrial chemicals, with applications ranging from solvents for chemical reactions to chemical intermediates. More than 9.5 billion pounds of MTBE were produced in 1991 alone, most of which went into gasoline.

New regulations dictate the removal of MTBE from groundwater to a level of less than 13 parts per billion (ppb).

CL Solutions’ aerobic bioremediation products have been successfully used for over seven years, at hundreds of sites, to efficiently clean up petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents.

Aerobic bioremediation with Petrox 1 provides fast, efficient and cost effective cleanup compared to other, more traditional technologies.

Petrox 1 consists of multiple strains of patented Pseudomonas bacteria and contains a guaranteed minimum of 6 X108 colony-forming units (CFU) per mL of water. The bacterial strains in Petrox 1 are selectively bred to exhibit extremely versatile pathways for the degradation of MTBE and many other petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants. The microbes are then freeze-dried to achieve a state of “suspended animation” and placed in hermetically sealed bags to preserve their viability during storage and transport.

Upon arrival on site, each bag of freeze-dried microbes is rehydrated to make 55 gallons of working solution. In general terms, one 55-gallon drum of Petrox 1 will treat 100 tons of sandy soil, 40 tons of silty soil, 5 tons of clay soil or 20,000 gallons of groundwater.

Field data from an MTBE cleanup in Dunedin, Florida, revealed reductions of MTBE from 1,700 ppb to 250 ppb in just two weeks. Within about 4 months, MTBE levels were reduced to 31 ppb. After 7 months, the MTBE levels was 0 ppb. Over the same 7-month period: benzene levels fell from 610 ppb to 0 ppb; toluene levels dropped from 2,400 ppb to 1.5 ppb; xylene fell from 11,000 ppb to 20 ppb; and ethylbenzene dropped from 1,500 ppb to 2.8 ppb.

View Data Table: MTBE cleanup in Dunedin, Florida

For additional information contact CL Solutions