Major Discovery: Tiny Microbes That Eat Fuel Waste

Fuel – and potentially plastic – has found its match in microorganisms collected in Antarctica that feed on it, a breakthrough discovery that could solve a wide variety of environmental issues the planet is currently facing.

“This work uses the potential of native microorganisms – bacteria and fungi that inhabit the Antarctic soil, even when it is contaminated – and make these microorganisms eat the hydrocarbons,” says Dr. Lucas Ruberto, a biochemist. “What for us is a contaminant, for them can be food.”

A team of scientists from Argentina discovered that the microbes ate through the waste caused by diesel used for electricity and heat on the frozen continent. This naturally occurring cleaning system could remove between 60% and 80% of contaminants. The team’s next task at hand is to see if the microbes could be helpful to clean plastic waste since both fuel and plastic are polymers. “If we find that it is indeed degrading plastic, the next step would be to understand how it does that so that in the long-term we could find a way to put together a biotechnology process for low-temperature polymer degradation,” says Nathalie Bernard, a biochemist, and specialist in plastic biodegradation.