STUDIES OF OIL-CONTAINING POLLUTION REMOVAL BY MICROORGANISMS
Introduction. Environmental pollution with oil and petroleum products is a result of technological progress and human activities. The release of petroleum products into the environment with industrial and storm water, as well as man-made disasters accompanied by oil spills, adversely affect the biocenosis of various natural ecosystems and require the development of new environmentally-friendly methods to protect the environment against this pollution. Methods. The scope of the studies is natural processes in biological water treatment technologies, which are based on the ability of bacteria to use petroleum products and elements with mixed valence as oxidizing agents of organic compounds. The studies included an analytical compilation of available scientific and technical results, a review of literature, patent searches, and laboratory studies using standard and modern techniques. Results. As a result of the research, the authors established the possibility of attached associations of microorganisms-destructors to destroy carbon-containing products, determined the approximate processing time depending on the treatment temperature, and identified the sequence of activity of bacterial genera strains involved in the decomposition of petroleum products by the degree of hydrophobicity. The identification of this sequence will make it possible to determine and select the ratios of microorganisms-destructors in spatial successions, created for biological treatment processes, more successfully.