Biological Decomposition of Oils and Oil Spill Risk from Ship Wreck in Deep Sea

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16360444
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Naval and maritime engineering
• Research Institution: National Maritime Research Institute
• Principal Investigator: SHIBATA Kiyoshi National Maritime Research Institute, 環境影響評価研究グループ, グループ長 (20281991)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HARA Shoichi National Maritime Research Institute, 海洋汚染防止研究グループ, グループ長 (60399524) ; WATANABE Kazuya Marine Biotechnology Research Institute Co. Ltd, 微生物利用領域, 領域長 (40393467) ; KASAI Yuki Marine Biotechnology Research Institute Co. Ltd, 微生物利用領域, 研究員 (20416572)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2005
• Keywords: Marine Pollution / Oil Spill / Ship / Biodegradation / Micro Organism / DNA / Deep Sea / Heavy Oil

Research Abstract

Biodegradation experiments of oil have been conducted at 20MPa and 279 and 298K to simulate ship wrecks in deep sea. About 100m1 of natural sea water, taken at Tokyo bay or Sagami bay, was mixed with 0.4ml of oil for 10 to 75days. Phosphate and Ammonium salts were added to the sea water. In most of the runts either n-decane or n-hexadecane was used as the oil. After a certain time period of the mixing, the degradation rate was determined by comparing the concentration rations of originally added oil to the other n-alkane added as an internal standard substance after the runs. The concentration was determined with GC-MS. The experimental results show fluctuation of the degradation process. In one case, more than 50% of the oil was decomposed in 10 days, but in another case almost no degradation was observed. The change in DNA sequence of the microcosm in the water was analyzed by DGGE-PCR. The band pattern after the degradation experiment was changed from that in the original sea water, and in each experiment the band patterns were different. It has not been successful to identify the microcosm which contributes the degradation of oil in high pressure water.
A data base for the ship wrecks near Japanese islands has been constructed. The wrecks over 100 tonnage in this about 100 years have been investigated and 1,206 of them are filed in the data base. The data included are name, type, tonnage and cargo of the ships, date, position and cause of the accidents, damage on the ship structure, human damage, depth of the wreck, size, date of built, owner or operator, shipbuilder of the ships and treatment after the accident.