Bioremediation of Crude Oil by Indigenous Bacteria in Bohai Bay

The ubiquitous exploitation of crude oil has been accompanied by accidental spills and pollution in marine environments. In June 2011, a serious crude oil spill occurred in Penglai 19-3 oilfield of Bohai Bay, which was an ecosystem disaster and a concern from the public and official governments. Physical and chemical technologies are available for oil spill cleanup, but petroleum hydrocarbons must be mineralized by microorganisms ultimately. In this review, we summarize the recent findings about response techniques to oil spills, petroleum hydrocarbons metabolism mechanisms, and immobilization techniques used in the bioremediation. Particularly, an effective engineered composite microbial product for petroleum hydrocarbons bioremediation was produced by indigenous bacteria and applied in the Penglai 19-3 drilling platform of Bohai Bay, which was a firstly successful case for in situ bioremediation of marine oil-polluted sediments in China. The insights and theories of the study could improve our understanding of the microbial degradation process and provide fundamental strategies on how indigenous bacteria can be exploited to guide the in situ bioremediation of crude oil pollution.