On-site Experiments of Bioremediation on Crude Oil in Coastal Areas of Japan Conducted by the National Institute for Environmental Studies

In recent years, bioremediation (a method of direct remediation of polluted sites using microorganisms), which had been used mostly as a partial method of cleaning up soil pollution, has been the focus of attention because of its usage also as a method for cleaning up coastal areas that have been polluted by drifting oil that originated mainly from oil tanker accidents. Bioremediation not only has the character of making use of organisms that exist in the natural field and decompose polluting substances, but also has only a slight influence on the ecological system. Moreover, bioremediation’s further advantage of being low-cost also gives rise to high expectations, so that its application for cleaning up crude oil that has drifted to the coast can be considered for areas where methods of physical collection would be difficult, or for residual oil left behind in cases when complete removal was unable to be carried out.