Numerous studies describe the necessity of adding nitrogen and phosphorus to facilitate microbial degradation of hydrocarbons. For example, a field trial of a controlled-release, hydrophobic fertilizer together with crude oil degrading bacteria was conducted in 1992 on an oil contaminated sandy beach in Israel (1). The results of the study showed an approximately 86% degradation of pentane compounds as compared to only a 15% decrease in a control plot of beach. Later that year the entire beach, containing approximately 200 tons of crude oil, was cleaned using the fertilizer-bacteria technology.
1. Petroleum bioremediation - a multiphase problem. Rosenberg E, Legmann R, Kushmaro A, Taube R, Adler E and Ron EZ. Biodegradation, Volume 3, Numbers 2-3, 337-350 1992
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