What Does
Bioaugmentation Mean?
Bioaugmentation can be defined as the process of degrading contaminants in soil and groundwater resources and in waste drilling fluid by adding cultured microorganisms into them.
Disposal of drilling waste has become an environmental issue and become a problem for the industry. Bioaugmentation can help clean up waste and prevent costly methods of transporting the waste to specific disposal sites. It helps significantly reduce the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the oil field drill cuttings.
Trenchlesspedia Explains Bioaugmentation
Bioaugmentation uses specific microbes that are capable of metabolizing hydrocarbons into water and carbon dioxide. When indigenous microbes are not available, the degradation rate is increased by using the site-specific application of fungi and bacteria or enzyme preparations to the contaminants.
Since drilling waste primarily consists of hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon-degrading microbes are applied after adjusting their ambient environment.
Research has shown that bioaugmentation is far better in decomposing PAHs than other methods such as composting. Bioaugmentation can help companies to treat their drilling waste at the site rather than transporting them to far off places that prove to be costly and time-consuming.