The Oil Eaters

Oilmen have long known why the black mess made by an overflowing well disappears so soon from the smirched ground. Road builders understand equally why blacktop pavement is eaten away from below. The guilty parties in both cases are microorganisms that go for hydrocarbons like kittens lapping spilled cream. Until recently no one made much of the hungry bugs' peculiar tastes blast week Research Director Alfred Champagnat of Societe Franc,aise des Petroles, a subsidiary of British Petroleum Co Ltd. announced that he has domesticated the oil eaters and that they are excellent food for both man and beast.

Champagnat began his work in 1957 with an investigation of the microorganisms that he found thriving in oil residues at the Lavera refinery near Marseille. He and his associates gradually learned which strains of bugs prefer which kinds of petroleum, and which produce the most and best protein. When the chemists learned how to grow the bugs in quantity, they filtered them out of the culture, separated them from all traces of petroleum and fed them to laboratory animals. Ihe < bugs proved to be an excellent protein concentrate, comparable in nutrient value to fish meal or soya cake. They are rich in B vitamins and lysine, the important aminoacid that is missing from protein made from grain.

Besides petroleum and oxygen, the oil eaters require inorganic salts, which act like fertilizers. The bugs are content with a very low grade of petroleum, and since they have the happy habit of eating its least valuable constituents, they leave it more valuable than when they started grazing on it. One ton of petroleum thus consumed produces about one ton of dry material that is half protein When fresh the stuff is white and tasteless, but as it ages it turns brown, smells like a new plastic toy and develops a delicately chemical flavor. Some samples according to French experimenters, taste like slightly rancid cheese.

British Petroleum is building a pilot plant at Lavera and plans to produce a ton of oil protein per day. The new product will be tried out first as animal feed but there seems to be no reason why it shou d not be fed to humans too. Produced in marketable quantities, it may turn out to be a bargain. Low-grade oil sells tor slightly more than 1-c- per lb., and a pound of good protein has the nutrient value of 5 lbs. of lean meat.

Chemist Champagnat has a growing affection for his busy oil bugs which he claims are much faster workers than steen A 1,000-lb. steer that is properly fed synthesizes 1 lb. of protein in 24 hours. In the same period 1,000 Ibs. of oil bugs grazing on petroleum gam 5,000 Ibs., of which 2,500 Ibs. are edible protein.

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