ABSTRACT
Humanity is still very dependent on crude oil. In spite of the large efforts related to the reduction of the petroleum consumption, our society remains depending on this resource as an energetic source besides raw material for the production of several commodities. In addition, petroleum is, principally, carried through far distances, increasing the chances of accidents. These accidents involving oil spill produces devastating impacts on the environment, such as the ones shown in Figure 1, since the lipophilic hydrocarbons of the petroleum present a strong interaction with the similar tissue of the higher organisms. This assimilation produces intoxication and even death. Unfortunately, the traditional cleanup process, which involves the use of dispersants and surfactants (Bellamy et al., 1967; Bragg et al., 1994), often presents a larger impact to the environment than the spill. This larger environmental impact is related to the absorption of the dispersed oil by organisms, which leads to a greater time for the biorecovery of the degraded environment (Barry, 2007).
