EM DISASTER RELIEF

Please remember that a glossary of terms used herein may be found at the end of the document.

EM technology actually consists of a range of microbial inoculant products, each containing somewhat different formulations of the beneficial microbial consortium. For the treatment of contaminated floodwaters and of structures and properties which had been affected by these floodwaters, I recommend to use a specially-customized variant of EM culture called EM-Ag™ Phototrophic Enhanced™, which would be employed at Mobile Production Units onsite to produce a version called Super Activated EM. This version of the culture contains far higher levels of beneficial purple-red phototrophic microbes, often called purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB), which are essential to treating and remediating organic wastes and reducing levels of many toxins. It is this product, which we will heretofore call “SAEM”, which I propose to employ in treating floodwaters, land and structures in the flood-ravaged areas.

A number of reports from the private, non-governmental, and public sectors from around the world, where EM microbial technology has been used for years in a wide variety of applications in waste management and waste remediation, show that the results iterated in the previous section of this paper will usually result from applying only very tiny amounts of this beneficial microbial inoculant culture, with application rates often ranging from 1 part to 10,000 to 1 part in 100,000 parts of water, and sometimes even more dilute rates. In other words, the treatment rates may range from one gallon of microbial inoculant culture to 10,000 gallons of water to as little as 1 gallon of microbial inoculant culture to 100,000 to 300,000 gallons of floodwater to be treated.

The basic EM technology is a mixed synergistic and metabiotic microbial consortium consisting of at least 12 naturally-occurring and beneficial microbes from across at least three genera. This beneficial microbial consortium can function effectively in either aerobic or anaerobic conditions, and many of the microbes in the consortium exhibit pronounced antioxidative (aka reducing) and syntropic (aka negentropic or anti-entropic) effects, performing microbially-mediate reduction and also producing numerous reducing compounds which have marked effects upon many substances found in waste and contaminated waters.

It is important to note that several products in the EM technology family, particularly SAEM, contain not merely the beneficial microbial consortium in a propagatable culture, but rather also contain a number of substances which are highly important in helping the microbial consortium to propagate and to become established in waste media; some of these special substances are:

Minerals and trace elements -- these help to nourish the beneficial EM microbes and other beneficial naturally-occurring wild microbes which will eventually form an even larger synergistic and metabiotic consortium in the waste stream.

Nutrients and trace nutrients, including selected carbon sources which selectively nourish the beneficial EM microbes and other beneficial naturally-occurring wild microbes which will eventually form an even larger synergistic and metabiotic consortium with the EM microbes in the waste stream.

Organic antioxidative (aka reducing) substances such as quinones, anthocyanins, polyphenols, flavonoids and carotenoids – these were produced largely via EM microbial fermentation in brewing the SAEM under controlled conditions, and help to not only neutralize many toxic and noxious substances (including gases) found in waste, but also help to create in the waste stream a beneficial environment where the EM microbial consortium may become quickly established and assure competitive advantage over undesirable (e.g., putrefactive or pathogenic) microbes.


Electron-shuttle or electron-relay compounds such as quinones, ubiquinone, ATP, NADH, bacteriochlorophylls, microbial cytochromes, etc.; these assist in drastically shifting the chemistry and microbial balance of the waste stream and solids.


Unique soluble organic electron-shuttling compounds which enable catalytic conversion of oxidative toxins, commonly found in sludge, via facilitated reduction (redox) reactions. This allows breakdown by reduction (redox) of many toxic and hard-to-remediate substances which can ordinarily become problematic in waste streams. Some common electron shuttles or electron relays are quiniones, ubiquinone (COQ10), soluble microbial humic substances and certain organic acids such as malic acid and malates1.

Reducing agents (often called antioxidants when examined within biological systems), including low molecular weight and very low molecular weight antioxidants, which offer strong reducing (redox) power for neutralization of hard-to-remediate substances often found in waste streams. The presence of these simple dielectric anionic hydrides and atomic hydrogen (the latter produced by some of the phototrophic microbes in EM products) may often be evidenced by downward shifts toward the reducing range of measures such as ORP (oxidation reduction potential) and the relative hydrogen score (aka rH2 or rH score, computed from pH and ORP) of waste liquids. These substances act as powerful reducing agents to reduce oxidative toxic substances and break up clumped bulked sediment consisting largely of acidic oxidative end-products.

It is worth noting the beneficial microbes in EM also produce considerable quantities of the above-named substances listed in numbered list items #3 through #6 as the microbes propagate in the waste stream and sludge; these nutrients, factors and co-factors are a very important vehicle for many of the changes rendered by these EM products.

Experience shows that the judicious use of metabiotic antioxidative syntropic fermentative microbial cultures such as EM can yield all the benefits listed in the previous section. In general, the methods via which EM technology products achieve these results are as follows:

Promoting beneficial microbial processes.


Prevention of runaway putrefactive and oxidative processes.


Provision of key nutrients and trace nutrients needed to allow beneficial and appropriate microbes to multiply and propagate in the water and natural settings.


Reduction of levels of substances which are rather toxic to beneficial microbes and thus inhibit or entirely halt their growth; these toxic substances can include powerful oxidants, toxic oxyanions of heavy metals, and toxic organic products of putrefaction.


Via microbial competition, prevent over-proliferation of undesirable aerobic and anaerobic microbes, which not only out-compete beneficial microbes, but which create an environment inhospitable to most beneficial microbes, and which also cause odors.


SAEM acts to not only supply sufficient quantities of desirable microbes, but also act to create conditions which will allow these microbes and naturally-occurring beneficial microbes to multiply.


Promotion of redox reactions such as reduction and microbial reduction (aka bacterial reduction), neutralizing many oxidants and oxidized substances, including bacterial reduction of toxic metal oxyanions.
Redox reactions such as oxidation, usually microbial oxidation, to neutralize some toxic compounds and metal cations.


Disproportionation reactions, often breaking down or neutralizing substances (e.g, halogen compounds) which have often been considered to be resistant to bioremediation.


Redox-coupled proton translocation
Electron shuttling (aka electron-transfer or electron-relay) reduction of organic oxidation products, oxidizing toxins and metals, often breaking down or neutralizing substances (e.g, halogen compounds) which have often been considered to be resistant to bioremediation


Bimodal and polymodal proton transfer in acid-base pairs and in catalyzed redox reactions to transform molecules and ions.


Shuttling of protons via consecutive hydrogen-bond (H-bond) formation, breaking, and proton transfer steps


Facilitating orderly and coherent breakdown or degradation of lignocellulosic materials in organic waste via microbial digestion


Common acid-base reactions. Although acid-base reactions are the mainstay of chemistry and are likely the most common chemical reaction in the bioxphere (e.g., where life exists on the face of the earth), such reactions are actually in a minority in the EM-mediated treatment of waste products. Rather, redox reactions such as reduction and microbial reduction tend to predominate in such an environment, followed by electron and proton shuttling (aka translocation). Indeed, one common reason for failure of traditional waste treatment methods is an excessive reliance upon acid-base reactions and failure to recognize the importance of allowing reduction and other redox reactions mediated by beneficial microbes.

Introduction | How EM Technology May be Used to Help Remediate |
Brief Notes on EM Technology | In Closing | Glossary