600 BC

Romans became the first to discover and utilize the process of bioremediation in a network of sewers and canals. Although these sewers and canals did not hold up to be as effective as today's technological advancements, it was more than enough to treat and modify the water conditions by using subsequent biological treatment.

1800

During this time, people who lived in Rhode Island would commonly dump waste into the rivers around the community. They did this because some believed that this would become a solution to "reduce" the waste.

1960

George M. Robinson invented the process of bioremediation. As he spent his spare time conducting experiments with dirty jars, Robinson was able to use the collected microbes inside the polluted jars to discover its capabilities. He later moved onto using the application of microbic technology from a oil cleanout on the RMS Queen Mary in the 70s.

1970

Just 12 years after Robinson's great discovery, the microbes that grew within the dirty jars were put to the ultimate test in 1972. The goal was to see if these microbes will successfully clean out the fuel tanks on the RMS Queen Mary. Fortunately, the experiment resulted in a great success which became the start of implementing bioremediation towards contamination sites.

1975

1980

1985

Ananda M. Chakrabarty Ph. D. and his colleagues at the University of Illinois developed a 'superbug' by using genetic engineering. This special 'superbug' targets and feeds off of the herbicide 2, 4, 5-T which can be commonly found in Agent Orange. His notable work in a directed evolution for a genetically engineered organism using plasmid led to a Supreme Court case later on known as 'Diamond vs. Chakrabarty".

The commercialization of bioremediation began to take action as it was widely used in the treatment of groundwater and contaminated soils. Because bioremediation became a prototype in many marine oil spill cleanup sites, it involved many interactions within scientific researchers all over the world.

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5 & T6

T7 & T8

Just along Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, 1989, an oil tanker called Exxon Valdez struck a reef which caused the tank to tear open. This resulted in the release of 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean. Shortly after, a storm eventually struck the site which caused the oil spill to spread out and cause more harm in other nearby areas.

T9

2005

1990

The Oil Pollution Act was passed by congress on 1990. This act strengthened the importance of preventing catastrophic oil spills, especially in oceans. The OPA requires facilities to submit a response or plan that outlines how they would respond to a potential oil spill.

T10 &T11

Researchers from the UK made a remarkable discovery on how a species of bacteria was capable of reducing uranium from a soluble oxidation state into an insoluble state. This finding opened new doors in reducing other radioactive actinide elements.

T12

2018

A team of researchers from University of California at Berkeley found a new way to allow proteins to be active outside of a cell. This comes in hand with bioremediation as they tested to see if they can create protein based materials for the bioremediation process of toxic chemicals.