The History

Bioremediation was first discovered around 600 BC by the Romans, through a wastewater sewage system that underwent bioremediation. However, the term wasn't known back then, and a man named George Robinson officially invented bioremediation in the 1960's, through experiments with microbes inside polluted glass jars. Further research was performed on these microbes to get them to expand their capabilities. In 1972, the first real-life situation with these microbes were performed on the fuel tanks of the RMS Queen Mary. It was successful, which lead to humans continuing to use, research and upgrade these microbes to present day. Now, the versatility and development of the microbes allow them to be used in many situations such as oil spills, and will continue to be further developed as we gain knowledge about bioremediation from research. We have already gained so much knowledge since George's experiment in the 1960's, but there's an exponential amount of knowledge still for us to discover in the field of bioremediation.