BCI Equipment and Staff

Using treatability / microcosm test results, Drs Fogel and Findlay provide practical recommendations to engineering clients for in situ and ex situ field bioremediations, including the types and amounts of microbial amendments, methods of application, and estimations of cost.

Bioremediation Consulting Inc. maintains equipment and specially trained staff for analysis of field samples and to design and conduct microcosm studies.
BCI employs staff experienced in conducting microcosm studies, including Ph.D.s in microbiology and chemistry, and scientists trained in molecular biology, chemistry, programming, biology, ecology, and geology.
BCI’s senior scientists, Margaret Findlay and Samuel Fogel, each have 25 years experience in surface and subsurface soil microbiology, and have published widely on anaerobic and aerobic microbial dechlorination.
BCI maintains a laboratory specially equipped to perform anaerobic procedures, using ultra pure compressed gasses for anaerobic transfer procedures, Coy Laboratory Glove Box, and anaerobic soil storage containers.
BCI maintains analytical equipment used for microcosm studies including Trace Analytical Hydrogen Analyzer, Waters Capillary Ion Elecrophoresis Analyzer, and Hewlett Packard 5890 GCs equipped with FID and FID/TCD.
BCI has an established quality control program for insuring that anaerobic procedures are able to exclude oxygen sufficiently to permit growth of oxygen-sensitive microorganisms such as methanogens and dechlorinators.
BCI maintains a culture collection of Dechlorinating bacteria, capable of converting TCE to ethene. These cultures are used as positive controls and for bioaugmentation in microcosm studies.
BCI has developed a versatile, efficient analytical method for analyzing TCE and all break-down products in ground water under a wide range of concentrations
BCI has completed approximately 150 microcosm studies involving reductive dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes and ethanes, as well as studies demonstrating aerobic and methanotrophic dechlorination.
BCI is able to identify both the presence and role of microbial groups such as methanogens, sulfate reducing bacteria, nitrate reducing bacteria, and acetogens in the biodegradation of chlorinated compounds.
BCI has developed PCR techniques for the identification of important dechlorinating bacterial species such as Dehalococcoides ethenogenes.