This review analyzes the main methods for cleaning up oil pollution in natural ecosystems, with a particular focus on the synergy between chemical and microbiological techniques for environmental remediation. While biological methods are a green and inexpensive soil remediation technique, they have a major limitation in their inability to clean up high concentrations of toxic contaminants. The poor performance of chemical methods stems from the high cost of chemicals and concerns over their negative and toxic effects on the environment. Physical methods also have high costs due to energy consumption and the need for additional treatment of gases generated during decontamination, making them ineffective for soil remediation. The main principle of bioremediation is based on microorganisms’ ability to degrade complex organic compounds, such as petroleum. This process is described in this review. This combination of methods allows for a higher level of decontamination of soil and water ecosystems, even against pollutants that are usually resistant to degradation, such as oil derivatives. While existing methods for cleaning oil-contaminated ecosystems are highly effective, they require significant material costs to implement. Additionally, the review discusses how the joint use of current and future biotechnology techniques can lead to the development of an effective set of strategies to protect soil and water systems from oil pollution. The reviewed studies show that a hybrid biotechnological approach is the most effective remediation method. When biological decontamination methods are adopted, the optimized combination of different remediation strategies can overcome the limitations of each technique, allowing efficiencies of even more than 70% to be achieved, given that the choice still depends on the type of contaminant, its concentration, and the properties of the receiving substrate.

The stabilizing ability of humic acids isolated from reed fen peat of the Ryazan region in the relation to oil and petroleum products under various abiotic conditions of the aquatic environment has been studied. The applicability of the used biological products in conditions of low temperature and increased salinity of the medium is determined. The stabilizing ability of the developed biological products was determined by the transmittance of emulsions. It was found that in the condition of increased salinity, the transmission coefficient decreases by 5-24% relative to the control experiment for crude oil, diesel fuel and waste oil when using monocultural biological products. It was found that the use of polycultures in the composition of biological products significantly reduces the transmittance by 24-43% for “HAs from reed peat of the Ryazan region + Rhodococcus erythropolis S67 + Rhodococcus erythropolis X5” and 10-29% for “Humic acids of reed peat of the Ryazan region + Rhodococcus erythropolis S67 + Rhodococcus erythropolis X5 + Pseudomonas fluorescens 142NF”. The applicability of the studied biological products in conditions of low temperatures is confirmed by a decrease in the transmission coefficient to 68-73% for diesel fuel, to 60-64% for used synthetic engine oil and to 64-69% for crude oil. It was found that the transmission coefficient decreases in the series: “Humic acids of reed fen peat of the Ryazan region + Rhodococcus erythropolis X5” → “Humic acids of reed peat of the Ryazan region + Pseudomonas fluorescens 142NF” → “Humic acids from reed fen peat of the Ryazan region + Rhodococcus erythropolis S67”. It was revealed that the reduction of the transmission coefficient of oil emulsions occurs due to the combined use of humic acids isolated from reed peat of the Ryazan region and the association of bacteria (both when using 2 and 3 strains). The stabilizing ability of humic acids in conditions of increased salinity was comparable to it in conditions of reduced temperature. It has been established that cane humic acids of the Ryazan region can be used as a basis for biological products that stabilize oil and oil emulsions.