Bio-physicochemical treatment of oil contaminated sea water

This article introduces a combined physicochemical and biological process for treatment of oil contaminated sea water. In this process, a new polymeric surfactant is successfully applied with a dosage of 0.0015 g/g of crude oil to accumulate oil spots on the sea water in a microcosm. In the next step, microbial degradation of accumulated oil spots using isolated bacteria from oil contaminated Caspian Sea water was studied. The results of a proposed process for treatment of contaminated sea water in a pilot scale, using a 1500-l microcosm with several basins at different conditions are presented.