The success of bioremediation efforts in the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill created tremendous interest in the potential of biodegradation and bioremediation technology. Applying high efficiency and low cost bioremediation processes represent an extremely important way of recovering contaminated areas among several other clean up techniques (Bidoia et al. However, conventional physical-chemical treatments have high costs and can generate residues that are toxic to the biota. Thus, control and treatment strategies to reduce the hazardous effects of oil pollution are needed. The amount of natural crude oil seepage was estimated to be 600,000 tons per year, with a range of uncertainty of 200,000 metric tons per year (Kvenvolden and Cooper 2003). These spills have attracted the attention of researchers examining the problem of hydrocarbon contamination and remediation of water and land environments. Several other major oil spills have occurred in Texas, Rhode Island, and the Delaware Bay (Anonymous 1989). Another majoroil spill occured in 1989, in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in which the oil tanker Exxon Valdez wrecked and spilled more than 200,000 barrels of crude oil into the water (Hagar 1989). It was recently proposed that at the time, that ground water system might have contained petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms (Litchfield and Clark 1973). It was estimated that 100,000 gallons (379,000 L) of gasoline seeped into the underlying dolomitic aquifer and the dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons migrated to a nearby municipal water supply well. In 1971, in Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania, a gasoline pipeline broke and released several hundred thousand gallons of high-octane gasoline. 1998 Gupta and Mahapatra 2003 Strong and Burgess 2008). As the world’s population continues to grow, the demand for petroleum and petroleum products increases vigorously, while oil spills and the improper discharge of industrial wastes contribute to pollution of the environment (Hernandez et al.
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