Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have received a
$60,000 one-year National Science Foundation grant to study how
naturally occurring microbes can best be used to eat away
remaining crude oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. Their choice
of weapon: Geometry. Fueled by oxygen, naturally occurring
bacteria can slowly destroy blobs and slicks of crude oil
without the use of additional chemicals. Faculty researchers at
Virginia Tech's Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering (CEE) hope to determine if the shape
of crude oil remnant - be it a flat syrupy sheet or a tar ball -
can affect deterioration rates. The researchers also will study
how a lack of oxygen can hinder microbe growth, and how carbon
leaching from dissipating oil can further fuel these oil-eating
microbes, a two-step process known as mass transfer and
biodegradation. Remaining toxic chemicals left behind by the
spill also will be studied at Virginia Tech labs in Blacksburg.
"This research has the potential