Novorem’s predecessor, Micronovo Pty Ltd, was established by Associate Professor Mike Manefield in 2012 to enable industry access to the microbiology expertise and bioaugmentation inocula cultivated at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia since 2005.
In 2017, Micronovo joined forces with Enretech, another Australian company with a focus on environmental clean up, to form Novorem. This new venture offers an expanded range of services benefiting from a wider range of expertise.
The bioremediation industry in Australia has lagged behind North America and Europe when it comes to the clean up of chlorinated solvent contaminated sites. This lag is partly owing to the lack of expertise in microbial diagnostics in Australia and partly owing to the absence of cultures for the bioaugmentation of chlorinated solvent contaminated sites.
Through Novorem these limitations no longer exist, so bioremediation, as applied to chlorinated solvent contaminated sites, is now a realistic option for the first time in Australia. Micronovo was the first company in Australia to offer diagnostic services for quantification of chlorinated solvent respiring bacteria.
Micronovo also conducted Australia’s first bioaugmentation with Dehalococcoides for a chlorinated ethene contaminated aquifer in Victoria in June 2012. As a consequence of Micronovo’s activities Australian State Governments have been developing protocols for handling requests to introduce cultures into groundwater.