How can we clean up the environment? Bioremediation can do that through the employment of living organisms.
The U.S. creates three hundred million metric tons of biohazardous waste each year from households and industry: the chemical industry single-handedly generates approximately five million tons of waste and more than 50% of these are released into the environment.
Loads of organic contaminants are carcinogenic, break down very slowly, and tend to collect within the environment posing considerable health risks to human and other living organisms. Bioremediation involves the utilization of plants (phytoremediation) and microorganisms to deal with contaminated soil and water in an environmentally friendly way. This article will focus on the use of microorganisms to handle contaminated locations.
Microorganisms are used in a number of methods to decontaminate polluted areas and stimulate the environment. Microbial remediation includes natural attenuation, biostimulation and/or bioaugmentation. All three processes rely on the capacity of microorganisms to break down the complex molecules of chemicals in biohazardous waste and utilize these simpler molecules to build cell parts; thereby, sustaining their very own metabolic processes.
Natural attenuation (intrinsic or natural bioremediation) would be the process that happens naturally in contaminated soil or water, as petroleum, gas and oil are lessened by oil-degrading microorganisms indigenous to the soils at contamination sites. An example would be the natural process that occurs at old gas stations with leaky underground tanks: oil-degrading microorganisms found in the soil will eventually break down the contaminants. However, researchers are investigating ways to broaden the scope of contaminants that microorganisms might digest, kind of like teaching bacteria to consume new things, and perhaps even speed up the process.
Biostimulation involves the adding together of nutrients and oxygen to contaminated water or soil to promote bacterial growth and activity. Biostimulation was used following the grounding of the Exxon Valdez when fertilizer applications were applied into the contamination site to stimulate growth of indigenous oil-degrading microorganisms.
Natural attenuation and biostimulation both rely on the natural presence of microorganisms that can degrade the particular contaminant. As an example, following the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the expansion of naturally occurring oil-degrading bacteria was promoted so microbial degradation of the oil might occur faster.
Whereas natural attenuation and biostimulation depend on indigenous microorganisms, bioaugmentation is utilized at sites where chemical-specific degrading microorganisms are not found. Bioaugmentation involves the addition of particular microorganisms to contaminated soil or water at the contamination site or in a treatment facility (e.g. municipal wastewater treatment facility). Indigenous microorganisms, with a “taste” for that type of contaminant, are isolated from other contamination sites of the same “flavour”, and added to the contaminated soil or water.
The bioremediation products are one of the best ways to oil spills clean up and also one of the most natural ways for oil spill remediation. Catalina BioSolutions BioCritters and services have cleaned over 1,000 sites effectively, efficiently and affordably.
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