Bioremediation on the Shore after an Oil Spill from the Nakhodka in the Sea of Japan. I. Chemistry and Characteristics of Heavy Oil Loaded on the Nakhodka and Biodegradation Tests by a Bioremediation Agent with Microbiological Cultures in the Laboratory

In January 1997, approximately 5000 tons of heavy oil was spilled from a Russian tanker, Nakhodka, which impacted within a 1200 km (linear km) area on the coast of Japan. We organized a joint research group to clean-up the oil on the shore with microbiological cultures for bioremediation, TerraZymeTM (Oppenheimer Biotechnology, Inc.). In this paper, we will examine the chemistry of the Nakhodka oil, and the oil samples treated with the bioremediation agent in vitro. The Nakhodka oil had an extremely high water content, 46.9%, and this resulted in a high oil viscosity and higher oil fluidity at a lower temperature (e.g. @ 5°C). TerraZymeTM exhibited a high potential for biodegradation of oil. Approximately 35% of the Nakhodka oil was degraded in 100 ml of test samples containing 1000 ppm of the initial concentration of the oil during the three-week test period. The impact of biodegradation extended to the hardest material in this contained heavy oil, asphaltum.