Cleaning Railroad Pits

Recently, at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Locomotive Repair Shop in Lincoln, Nebraska, Mr. Surface was used to clean and remediate the dirt, oils and fuel so a non-slip coating could be applied.

This pit restoration project work was completed by Utility Maintenance Contractors out of Wichita, Kansas.

Mr. Surface was spray applied and scrubbed in and allowed to remain for two hours before it was rinsed away with water to assure that the surface and the pours of the concrete were clean and free of contaminants.

After the preparation completed using Mr. Surface, the pit was ready to be coated. The photos below show the pit before application, the test, the cleaned area and the coated pit.

Please go to Products and Remediation, and read our pages describing Mr. Surface and how it works!

Groundbreaking Cleaning for Elevator Pits!

Elevator pits, just like railroad pits or auto oil changing pits get dirty with oil, grease, metal shavings and dirt. Mr. Surface literally eats hydrocarbons, that is, oil, grease, diesel fuel, etc.

In the past removing oil from elevator pits has been a major problem until now. Microbial Restoration Services in conjunction with Industrial Surfacing & Lining has developed a groundbreaking process which safely removes all oil contaminants from elevator pits allowing waterproof sealers and coatings to properly bond to the concrete. This is a huge breakthrough in elevator pit cleaning!

If there is a large amount of standing water with oil, the water needs to be vacuumed and removed prior to applying the microbial cleaning solutions. This is a perfect opportunity to use Mr. Genesis to absorb the excess water. Once the saturated polymers of Mr. Genesis are removed, that will reveal what buildup is on the bottom of the elevator pit such as oil, dirt, etc. The sludge must be scraped up first, before using the microbes. Then the surfaces (walls and floors) need to be sprayed down with water. Walls, because they are vertical, require two or more spray applications of Mr. Surface. Usually, it takes about two hours for the microbes to do their work, depending on the amount of oil and grease.

The microbes need to be applied with a pump up sprayer and then scrubbed in. Preparation time is reduced by 50% due to not having to protect elevator components from the microbial cleaning solution. The concrete floor is free of all oil contaminants after one hour of scrubbing. Mr. Genesis Super Absorbent Polymer is then used to pick up the rinse water.

The key advantages of this process are that the Microbial Restoration Services products are environmentally friendly. The microbes actually digest the oil and grease and convert hydrocarbons into non-hazardous waste. There are no volatile organic compounds, there is no chemical residue left behind and no neutralizing is needed. This revolutionary process is a win-win for everybody!

Mr. Surface is the professional's choice for pit cleaning and remediating. 

Please go to Products and Remediation, and read our pages describing Mr. Surface and how it works!

Microbes to the Rescue!

Microbes At Work

to Assist in Cleaning Huge Oil Spill

You may remember that in April of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was a huge oil spill after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. Tragically, eleven men were killed and seventeen were injured. Over 210 million gallons of crude oil spread throughout the waters. What is particularly fascinating is that just five days before that terrible event, an assembly of European scientists made a strangely visionary proclamation. They were planning to begin studying specific microbes (microorganisms) that actually eat and digest crude oil.

German microbiologist and project leader, Dietmar Pieper, stated, "Petroleum-degrading bacterial communities harbor a considerable and hitherto unexploited potential." Absolutely correct! Freelance writer Emily Voigt wrote in her August 2010 article, Tiny Critters That Eat Oil, “The reason our oceans are not black and sludgy is that many microbes eat hydrocarbons.” This process is what is called “enhanced bioremediation," that is, using microorganisms to restore debilitated ecosystems.

You don’t need an ocean-sized oil spill to have microbes go to work for you! Restoration Cleaning Products use specialized formulas of microbes to eat oils, fats, grease, and other organic waste from concrete and other surfaces – indoors or outdoors!

Mr. Surface will eat oils and grease off concrete or metal surfaces without etching! Mr. Fog is the perfect choice for greasy restaurant floors and many other industrial food applications.

“Just like your automobile, these marine-dwelling bacteria and fungi use the hydrocarbons as fuel—and emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result,” writes David Biello, contributing editor at Scientific American.
Or, as microbial geochemist Samantha Joye of the UGA puts it, "They're clever, they're tough, they can basically eat nails…. The microbes have to save us again."

You Don’t Need an Ocean-sized Oil Spill

to have Microbes go to Work for You!

What Is Microbial Restoration?

Microbes come in million of forms and sizes

Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle. They are the oldest form of life on earth. Without microbes, we couldn’t eat or breathe. Microbes are everywhere. There are more of them on a person's hand than there are people on the entire planet! Microbes are in the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the food we eat—they're even inside us! We couldn't digest food without them—animals couldn't, either. Without microbes, plants couldn't grow, garbage wouldn't decay and there would be a lot less oxygen to breathe. In fact, without these invisible companions, our quality of life as we know it on this planet would become incomprehensibly bad!
In modern times, to help clean up disasters, scientists have used microorganisms that convert hazardous oil into less toxic compounds. This is true for many forms of pollutants. This natural process is called biodegradation. When microbe-like bacteria and fungi break down complex pollutants into simpler substances, the result is that hazardous materials are broken down into non-hazardous microbial components which are then easily disposed of.
At Microbial Restoration Services, we have harnessed the power of microbes to safely and naturally clean up oil, grease, food, animal and human waste and more.
In our bio-remediation process, we have selected the correct microbes that use these contaminates as a food source and/or energy, so that all that is left after the microbes have done their work is carbon dioxide and water.
Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle. They are the oldest form of life on earth. Without microbes, we couldn’t eat or breathe. Microbes are everywhere. There are more of them on a person's hand than there are people on the entire planet! Microbes are in the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the food we eat—they're even inside us! We couldn't digest food without them—animals couldn't, either. Without microbes, plants couldn't grow, garbage wouldn't decay and there would be a lot less oxygen to breathe. In fact, without these invisible companions, our quality of life as we know it on this planet would become incomprehensibly bad!
In modern times, to help clean up disasters, scientists have used microorganisms that convert hazardous oil into less toxic compounds. This is true for many forms of pollutants. This natural process is called biodegradation. When microbe-like bacteria and fungi break down complex pollutants into simpler substances, the result is that hazardous materials are broken down into non-hazardous microbial components which are then easily disposed of.
At Microbial Restoration Services, we have harnessed the power of microbes to safely and naturally clean up oil, grease, food, animal and human waste and more.
In our bio-remediation process, we have selected the correct microbes that use these contaminants as a food source and/or energy, so that all that is left after the microbes have done their work is carbon dioxide and water.

What Are Microbes?

Microbes are very small living organisms, so small that most of them are invisible. The majority of them can only be seen with a microscope, which magnifies their image so we can see them. Did you know that microbes are so tiny you would find over a million in a teaspoon of soil? They make up more than 60 % of the Earth’s living matter and scientists estimate that 2 to 3 billion species of microbes live on the planet with us.

Microbes (also known as microorganisms) play a vital role in our lives. Although there are some microbes that can cause disease, most microbes are completely harmless, and we couldn’t live without them. These microscopic organisms play a major role in maintaining life on earth and breaking down dead plant and animal matter into simpler substances that are used at the beginning of the food chain.

Microbes affect every aspect of life on earth. They have an amazing variety of shapes and sizes and can exist in a wide range of habitats from hot springs to the icy wastes of Antarctica and inside the bodies of animals and plants.
 

Microbes eating food, oil and grease