IOCL starts Bioremediation of Mumbai oil spill
Mumbai   26-Aug-2010

IndianOil offered its services to Maharashtra government for cleanup the oil spill that occurred on August 7, 2010 at the coast of Mumbai due to collision between two vessels MSC Chitra and Khalija. In this endeavor, the scientists from IndianOil (R&D centre) and TERI had high level meetings with MPCB officials and oth­er state officials to carry out the bioremediation of spilled oil that is reaching the shore areas by employing the unique OiliVorous technology, de­veloped jointly by IndianOil and TERI.

Dr. R.K. Malhotra, Director (R&D), IndianOil shared that TER1 and IndianOil have jointly developed 1500 kgs of mi­crobial mixture specially cultivated in large scale bioreactors. The specially cultured Microbes have been dispatched to Bombay in special containers along with concerned officials. TERI and IndianOil have together taken up the process of shifting this cultured microbial mixture to the affected site.

IndianOil and TERI in association with the MPCB and local district officials started the first phase of the cleanup operation on August 20, 2010 at Awas Beach near Alibaugh, Mumbai. The oily tar balls and oil contaminated sand was mixed with specially prepared microbial blend, which can sustain high salinity and a proprietary nutrient recipe to hasten the break-down of hydrocarbon contaminants.