General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OLESORB Global (Pvt) Ltd. for an Industry Collaborative Project

Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution of the environment is one of the significant issues facing the modern world. It has severe and catastrophic effects on biotic elements of the environment, including other biotic species in addition to humans. Bioremediation of oil spills and oil-contaminated waters is a promising, environmentally friendly, and sustainable way to mitigate the environmental hazards caused by oil spills, and oil contamination in lakes, rivers, and the ocean, as it does not cause secondary pollution problems. Also, the operational costs are lower than for physics and chemical recovery procedures.

MOU was signed between General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University and Oleosorb Global (Pvt.) Ltd. on 8th March 2023, to conduct experiments and feasibility studies to explore the possibility of incorporating the petroleum hydrocarbons-eating microbial consortium onto BLOTZ substrate for the cleanup of hydrocarbon and other oil spills in aqueous systems.

Major General Milinda Peiris, the Vice-Chancellor, and Prof. Thushara Weerawardane, Director Institute of Combinatorial Advanced Research and Education (KDU-CARE), signed the agreement on behalf of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. Mr. Dimantha Kohombanwickramage, Director and Mr. MYM Ali, Director, signed the agreement on behalf of Oleosorb Global (Pvt.) Ltd. Professor Charitha Gunasekara, Dean of Research and Development, KDU and the Principal Scientist and Senior Lecturer, Dr. Himali Jayasinghearachchi, who initiated research activities on discovering oil-eating microorganisms, participated in this occasion.