Yes it has. today , naturally occurring strains of oil-digesting bacteria are used to clean up oil spills
True. Scientists have indeed produced bacteria that can digest oil. These specialized bacteria can breakdown hydrocarbons found in oil into simpler compounds through a process known as bioremediation. This method is often used to clean up oil spills in aquatic environments.
Inducing mutations in bacteria
Oleophilic bacteria are bacteria that are attracted to and have the ability to break down oil. They play a crucial role in the biodegradation of oil spills and are a natural way of cleaning up environmental contamination by oil. These bacteria have specific enzymes that allow them to digest hydrocarbons found in oil.
Bacteria that can digest oil clean up environmental pollutants like
Genetically engineered oil-eating bacteria are produced by inserting specific genes into the bacterial genome through a process called genetic engineering. These genes usually code for enzymes that enable the bacteria to metabolize oil as a food source. Once the genes are successfully integrated into the bacteria's DNA, they can begin producing the enzymes and consuming oil in their environment.
Chinese scientists have found a strain called Bacillus cereus DQ01 that digests petrol:http://io9.com/5287359/chinese-scientists-discover-bacteria-eating-up-their-oil
Some bacteria digest oil spills or plastic. Geobacter bacteria coats uranium and prevents it from contaminating ground water. Some bacteria digests paper and makes a fuel called butanol. Clostridium sporogenes, another bacteria, is being used to kill cancer tumors.
I believe you are asking, "Where did the Gulf of Mexico crude oil go?" Some of the oil was recovered using skimmers. BP was able to conduct controlled burning of the oil, where it was most concentrated. There was subsea recovery of some of the oil using the devices fabricated by BP (top hat, riser insertion tube, stand-alone riser). Nature helps remove oil or make the oil less of a problem to the environment. Since the gulf water is warm, a large percentage of the oil evaporated away. Waves will break up the oil into smaller droplets and partially dissolve some of the oil. Bacteria in the water digest the oil if it is small bits. BP used dispersants that break up the oil so bacteria can digest the oil. These processes do not eliminate all the oil. Some oil remains but the amount is far from certain. Wikipedia identifies some estimates of the remaining oil. Scientists are concern that some of the remaining oil may be on the sea floor.
When A. borkumensis bacteria use alkanes as their source of energy, each cell forms a biosurfactant (other sources of energy do not cause the bacteria to produce this biosurfactant). A biosurfactant is an extra layer of material forms along the cell membrane. The substances that make up the biosurfactant of A. borkumensis can reduce the surface tension of water, which helps with the degradation of oil. They are also emulsifiers, which further serve to break up the oil/water emulsion, making oil more soluble. A. borkumensis forms a biofilm (a wall of cells) around an oil droplet in seawater and proceeds to use biosurfactants and metabolism to degrade the oil into a water-soluble substance.[4]
Using diamonds and a laser, scientists crushed and heated methane produced ... up the same finished products using a few substitutions. crude oil picture
yeh they already have. they add sulphur to the water and the bacteria go nuts and eat all the oil. this method is inefficient, though, because the bacteria just die because of the waters salinity levels. at the moment we are actually making a bacteria that is salt tolerant, so it survives in the salt water.
Bacteria in combination with organic material can produce methane gas. The addition of bacteria to heavy oil deposits to produce methane gas is new research, but it certainly looks promising. Bacteria does not create gasl on its own, but rather transforms the organic material into gas. I've included one link, where scientists claim that bacteria may be used to create oil, but I am not aware of any commercial applications. See links.