A microbial preparation developed by Rosneft for the disposal of oil pollution has successfully passed laboratory tests, and this fall it is planned to test an industrial design at the Belomorsk technological station of Moscow State University. Mikhail Boldyrev, Director General of the Arctic Research and Development Center for Offshore Development of Rosneft, announced this today at an online press conference. The biological product consists of microorganisms capable of using hydrocarbons as food and solves the problem of utilizing hydrocarbons in the polar latitudes.
The main advantage of a biological product is its operation at low temperatures and its technological form, which allows the targeted delivery of bacteria to places of pollution. The drug has successfully passed laboratory tests, and in the fall of this year it is planned to test an industrial design at the Belomorsk technological station of Moscow State University.
NK Rosneft, together with Innopraktika and the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, has been conducting this work since 2015. In the course of joint research work, 39 patents were obtained for microbial preparations and psychrophilic strains of microorganisms with the demonstrated efficiency of utilization of oil products in the marine environment and cold climate.
As noted by Mikhail Boldyrev, specialists from the Arctic Research Center of the company, together with the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after A.N. Severtsov RAS and the Center for Marine Research of Moscow State University in 2020 also conducted an expedition to study the Atlantic subspecies of the walrus and polar bear, listed in the Red Book. In addition, Rosneft’s research area includes populations of ivory gull and wild reindeer.