The document discusses a proposed bio-catalytic technology using oil-eating bacteria to help clean up oil spills. The bacteria are sprinkled on oil spots in the sea along with nutrients. After a few hours, the bacteria can break down hydrocarbon molecules into non-toxic sub-products. Special capsules have been developed to slowly release nutrients to the bacteria to allow for consistent growth and complete neutralization of oil spills.

1. OIL EATING BACTERIA

2. OIL EATING BACTERIA & APPLICATIONS
We propose a bio-catalytic technology that can prevent environmental damage arising from any
oil spill in marine waters by releasing a natural and biocompatible product into the affected
area. In fact, oil-eating bacteria represents the best possible solution available in emergency
situations, offering the least environmental impact and the lowest possible cost, in order to
effectively limit the serious damages cause by the ecological disaster.
The bacteria are sprinkled on oil spots in the sea together with nutrients (nitrogen and
phosphorous) that act to catalyse the metabolic process. After only a few hours, this technology
is able to break down hydrocarbon molecules into partially biodegradable non-toxic sub-
products.
It is worth noting that both nitrogen and phosphorous are nutrients that are very scarce in the
open sea and thus they must be added to the bacterial blend. In respect to this, a particular
technology has been developed to capsulate micro nutrients such that they can be correctly
and effectively mixed with the bacteria. Capsulated micro nutrients take action quite gradually;
the capsule’s wax layer melts in hydrocarbon and slowly releases nitrogen and phosphorous,
allowing consistent, rapid micro-organism growth resulting in complete neutralization of the
spill.

3. What do you think is new or different about your idea?
If this is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before?
Explain how your idea is technically feasible.
Why do you think this business is economically viable?
Imagine you have money to invest, why would you not invest in your venture?

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS NEW OR DIFFERENT ABOUT YOUR IDEA?
• It is easy to implement using existing equipment on site at most platform, opening up several
new technical applications on dedicated ships (i.e. skim-boats), oil-tankers and oil plants’
offshore safety systems. This allows for an immediate and effective response at the site to
combat the pollution due to an oil spill.
• This technology overcomes what has been defined “an environmental trade-off” by the EPA1 in
the USA, which justified in this manner the use of dispersants during emergency situations.
Applied on the surface before spills reach the coastline, dispersants can potentially decrease
exposure to the spill for surface-dwelling organisms (such as sea birds) and intertidal species
(such as mangroves and salt marshes), but often increase exposure to the aquatic life found
deeper in the water. Additionally, recent scientific tests2 indicate that the toxic dispersants used
to address recent crisis can create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil and
have negative effect on the health of coastlines’ human population.
• Oil companies face numerous risks involved in extraction, refining and transportation of crude
oil. Up until now, only safety and environmental risks linked to their traditional core activities
were addressed. But the development and growth of offshore drilling, which represents a
relatively recent practice in the oil industry, has revealed a clear misunderstanding and
undervaluation of the risks implied3. Due to the quick spread of this type of drilling during the
last 20 years, its implied risks were not fully analysed and soundly incorporated in the designing
of proper safety measures. This spread continues today, and the fact that BP recently drilled the
deepest ever recorded well makes this underestimation of both the probability and impact of a
disaster an immediately relevant issue.

5. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS NEW OR DIFFERENT ABOUT YOUR IDEA?
• Today there is a favourable consensus among the corporate world and the general public
to develop and adopt technologies that reduce environmental damages arising from oil
spills when safety measures in place fail to contain the emergency.
• This favourable climate is further strengthened by political pressure on national
environmental agencies to allow the testing of new technologies on a large scale. Heavy
government criticism following the recent crisis because of poor results despite high
investment of resources as well as government authorization of the use of toxic
dispersants has caused the political landscape to turn favourably on developing
technologies like the one we propose.
• Research triggered by recent events has lead to an over-abundance of data regarding the
severe short-term and long-term environmental damages due to oil spills. Our idea is
important because of the absence of any other technology able to effectively neutralize oil
spills without environmental damage.

6. What do you think is new or different about your idea?
If this is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before?
How is your idea be technically feasible?
Why do you think this business is economically viable?
Imagine you have money to invest, why would you not invest in your venture?

7. IF THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA, WHY HASN’T IT BEEN DONE BEFORE?
• In order to be effective, this technology needs both of its core parts, which have only
recently been scientifically validated: specific oil eating bacteria and encapsulated
nutrients that slowly melt in the hydrocarbon over the water surface. The oil eating
bacteria were isolated from naturally occurring bacteria, and recent scientific trials4 show
that this latter state-of-art core technology is perfectly suitable and easily available.
• Because of the previously politically sensitive environmental concerns regarding the
nature of bacteria and the possibility of altering the marine ecosystem of treated areas.
This attitude is now changing because of the catastrophic nature of the recent spill.
• Because of insufficient scientific data documenting the long-term effects related to the
release of these natural bacteria in the marine ecosystem. However, the basic biology of
the bacteria is such that without access to the main nutrients they need to survive
(phosphorous and nitrogen, both scarce in the open sea) their life cycle will terminate,
suggesting they should have little long term effect on the area in which they are
introduced.
• Traditional risk management practices adopted by major oil companies have always dealt
with oil-spill prevention, not clean up, mostly focusing on the adoption of technical and
mechanical devices (i.e. bulkheads, double well controls, etc) that reduce the probability of
environmental disaster. This led to a situation were “good enough” technologies were
justified by the relatively low probability of a major disasters, so there has been little
incentive before now to develop a technology like this.

8. What do you think is new or different about your idea?
If this is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before?
Explain how your idea is technically feasible.
Why do you think this business is economically viable?
Imagine you have money to invest, why would you not invest in your venture?

9. EXPLAIN HOW YOUR IDEA IS TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE.
This idea is technically feasible because it relies on an existing and scientifically tested
technology. We believe that this idea is particularly powerful because it specifically does not
rely on yet-to-be-invented breakthrough solutions. The oil eating bacteria technology needs
some further testing to fully monitor its effectiveness on large scale and in different climatic
conditions and also to better understand the reaction in an open sea environment, but these
tests are within the power of our scientific partners. Overall, tests carried out to date indicate
significant positive results in figures related to oil eating bacteria’s performances.
In order to mitigate the risks related to the timing and effectiveness of bacteria’s ability to
breakdown hydrocarbon molecules, a sensitivity analysis on the effects of temperature is being
carried out, which we hope will further support our technology. This additional information
will help in identifying optimal and suboptimal areas of intervention, leading to additional
related findings indicating the best and the worse conditions in which to use this technology.
Most importantly, this idea relies on a patented bacteria that our business partners own the
legal rights to. The business model has been developed in conjunction with these scientists,
who highly support it going forward. The business model is flexible depending upon the
expertise and funding provided, and could be adapted for simply licensing the product or
developing in-house dedicated technical applications.

10. What do you think is new or different about your idea?
If this is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before?
Explain how your idea is technically feasible.
Why do you think this business is economically viable?
Imagine you have money to invest, why would you not invest in your venture?

11. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS BUSINESS IS ECONOMICALLY VIABLE?
• Encapsulated nutrients are relatively inexpensive compared to alternative solutions to
manufacture on a large/medium scale.
• The selected oil eating bacteria are also relatively inexpensive to cultivate in laboratory.
• Both the bacteria and the technical process to microencapsulate nutrients are patented by
our business partners and the efficiency of the combination has been proven in scientific
trials5.
• There are myriads of possible technical applications flowing from the use of this core
technology (i.e. skim-boats, helicopters and planes equipped with sprinklers); it would be
relatively easy to license it to the relevant manufactures.
• Otherwise, it would be possible to develop joint ventures and partnerships with boatyard
designers and engineers in order to build a dedicated boatyard that leverage on the
developments linked to the oil eating bacteria technology.
• Direct and indirect, short and long-term costs caused by an oil spill are often substantial for
the company responsible and, additionally, the emergency situation requires the expensive
mobilization of several actors. Thus, both governments and corporate players are naturally
interested in possessing and adopting a technology that mitigates and reduces these costs.

12. What do you think is new or different about your idea?
If this is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before?
Explain how your idea is technically feasible.
Why do you think this business is economically viable?
Imagine you have money to invest, why would you not invest in your venture?

13. IMAGINE YOU HAVE MONEY TO INVEST, WHY WOULD YOU NOT INVEST IN
YOUR VENTURE?
• Because of some uncertainty related to environmental concerns regarding long-term
effects on marine life in the areas affected.
• Because the use of this technology in open sea oil spills needs to be approved by
environmental agencies/government bodies, which retain full sovereignty and discretionary
power over national waters and coastlines. Governmental bodies may approve new
legislation that favours exclusive usage of other technologies (i.e. solvents) However,
solvents do little to decrease environmental impact on the sea ecosystem, and their use has
been deemed by many as irresponsible6.
• Because there is the potential for other technologies to be developed that compete on
convenience or price advantage. However, a current market analysis carried out in order to
identify substitutes fails to identify any other currently available competing product. The
only exception is constituted by dispersants, which have been proven7 ineffective and
widely harmful. Furthermore, it is worth noticing that the probability that the chemical
industry will be able to produce shortly “green” dispersants is quite low.