Irena B. Ivshina

TL;DR: New knowledge as well as research and technology gaps essential for developing appropriate decision-making tools in actual spill scenarios are summarized, with a particular focus on bioremediation as environmentally harmless, cost-effective and relatively inexpensive technology.

TL;DR: Due to certain characteristics of MTBE, such as relatively low toxicity, biodegradability, ease of downstream recovery, low flammability and explosion safety, the use of this solvent as an extraction agent in industrial scale biosurfactant production is feasible.

TL;DR: Chemical analysis showed that crude oil removed by biosurfactant contained a lower proportion of high-molecular-weight paraffins and asphaltenes, the most nonbiodegradable compounds, compared to initial oil composition, suggesting that oil mobilized by biosURfactants could be easily biodegraded by soil bacteria.

TL;DR: The potential of immobilised hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms for the clean up of diesel-contaminated soil is examined and immobilised systems were found to be the most successful, with greatest removal in a co-immobilisation system containing PVA-entrapped microorganisms and a synthetic oil absorbent.

TL;DR: The structure and properties of surface-active lipids of Rhodococcus ruber are examined to characterise the biosurfactants produced during growth on liquid n-alkanes and to compare these with R. erythropolis glycolipids.