Blogs

Microbially Mediated Mineral Recovery from Coal Ash In the mining industry, strategies that leverage microbial processes are increasingly attractive as sustainable and cost-effective methods for improving the recovery efficiency of precious metals from low grade ores. A similar approach can be used to recover minerals from waste streams generated by other industries. For example, coal-fired…

Produced Water, Critical Minerals, and Microbially Mediated Recovery Mining companies are exploring microbially mediated processes such as bioleaching for critical mineral recovery. Meanwhile, energy companies are investigating oilfield produced water as a supply stream for critical minerals. At the intersection of these interests, biomining offers a transformative opportunity to extract high value critical minerals directly…

Top 4 Biotech Applications for the Mining Industry In recent decades, a greater focus on harnessing microbial processes for industrial applications has led to the development of innovative solutions to some of the mining industry’s most pressing challenges. The unbiased, actionable data Microbial Insights provides can help to cost-effectively enhance the efficiency, sustainability, and environmental…

Shipping In The Hot Weather: The More You Know As the warmer months approach, we want to remind you of the importance of maintaining proper sample storage conditions to ensure accurate and reliable results. During this time, temperatures can fluctuate, and it’s critical to ensure your samples remain within the required hold temperature range to…

Confirming Biodegradation with Stable Isotope Probing Stable Isotope Probing (SIP) is an innovative method to track the environmental fate of a 13C-labeled contaminant of concern to unambiguously demonstrate biodegradation. The label serves as a tracer which can be detected in the end products of biodegradation: new biomass and carbon dioxide (CO2) or dissolved inorganic carbon…

Understanding and Addressing Reservoir Souring: Costs, Challenges, and Solutions Reservoir souring is a common and costly challenge in the oil and gas industry, especially during secondary recovery processes. This phenomenon is primarily caused by the activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and sulfate-reducing archaea (SRA), which metabolize sulfate ions in water to produce hydrogen sulfide (H₂S).…

Commercial Versus Research Lab   Does the lab you are using actually subcontract their molecular work to a local university or is it performed in house?  Read below to understand why using a commercial lab is important to your project:   Why choose a lab like Microbial Insights: Customer service – MI provides hands-on customer…

Agriculture: Insights from MI In the ever-evolving agricultural landscape, there is a big factor most people miss: the little guys. Understanding the microbial world is key to managing the delicate balance between soil, plants, animals, and environmental factors.   Identifying Microbial Threats to Agriculture In agriculture, microbial, fungal, plant, and animal communities interact in complex…

Microbial Insights: Proud Sponsor of The Groundwater Project At Microbial Insights, we are proud to support initiatives that align with our mission of advancing scientific understanding and addressing global environmental challenges. That’s why we are honored to sponsor The Groundwater Project (GW-Project), a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to making high-quality groundwater education accessible to everyone.…

Press Release Microbial Insights Partners with Site Investigation Supply to Enhance Presence and Customer Service in Australian Market 20 September, 2024 Knoxville, TN – Microbial Insights, a global leader in microbial diagnostic solutions, is excited to announce its collaboration with Site Investigation Supply as its official representative in Australia. This partnership enhances Microbial Insights’ established…

Addressing the Challenges of the Midstream Oil and Gas Sector The midstream sector is the vital link between the exploration and production of oil and gas and the delivery of refined products to market. It involves the transportation, storage, and distribution of crude oil, natural gas, and their derivatives, connecting upstream extraction with downstream refining.…

Why Are Environmental Remediation Services Important? Environmental remediation services are crucial for revitalizing contaminated land, protecting human health, and enhancing economic and ecological value. In a world filled with finite things let us preserve what we have left. Here are key benefits of environmental remediation: Improves the Environment–Remediation transforms contaminated sites into healthy, usable land.…

Understanding the Units used in CENSUS® and QuantArray® Reports CENSUS® qPCR and QuantArray® analyses can be performed on nearly any sample type, including water, solids like soil or corrosion product scrapings, Bio-Trap® samplers , and swabs of biofilms. The units the results are reported in depend on the sample matrix that was submitted for the…

Microbes in Action Welcome to the captivating world of microbes! If you’re new to the subject or simply curious to learn more, buckle up as we discuss these tiny yet powerful organisms. What Are Microbes? Microbes, also known as microorganisms, are living organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye. They come in…

Generating Environmental Insights with QuantArray®-Chlor Environmental remediation continues to evolve, and Microbial Insights Inc. is at the forefront of this transformation with its groundbreaking technology: QuantArray®-Chlor. Let’s dive into the power of this innovative solution that has been revolutionizing the assessment of chlorinated solvent-contaminated sites since 2012. Targeted Analysis, Unparalleled Results QuantArray®-Chlor is designed to…

Leveraging MBTs at Remediation Projects: Save Money and Improve Outcomes Microbial Insights has extensive expertise and experience helping clients to leverage our highly accurate, cost-effective, and informative molecular biological tools (MBTs) to provide the comprehensive data needed to select and implement effective environmental remediation strategies. Throughout the lifecycle of a remediation project, there are several…

QuantArray®-MIC: A Valuable Tool for Corrosion Management In the world of industrial processes, microorganisms wield a powerful influence, often leading to challenges like microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) and oilfield souring. MIC impacts nearly all industries and can exact a severe toll in terms of loss of production, O&M costs, equipment deterioration and potentially the health,…

Unlocking the Potential for Petroleum Biodegradation with QuantArray®-Petro Comprehensive evaluation of biodegradation potential at petroleum impacted sites can by challenging due to two factors: (1) Petroleum products are complex mixtures of hundreds of aliphatic, aromatic, cyclic and heterocyclic compounds. (2) Even for common classes of contaminants like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), biodegradation can…

Solve Subsurface Mysteries with QuantArray®-BGC The world beneath our feet is flourishing with microbial activity that plays a crucial role in biogeochemical processes. Microbial Insights’ QuantArray®-BGC analysis comprehensively quantifies microorganisms and functional genes involved in biogeochemical processes in a way that was once thought impossible. Let’s dive into the realm of biogeochemical exploration and the…

Unveiling Microbial Insights: The Power of Next Generation Sequencing Today, we’re diving into the realm of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), a cutting-edge technique that has revolutionized our understanding of microbial communities. NGS is transforming the field of microbiology and shedding light on intricate processes like Environmental Remediation (ER) and Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC). NGS is…