What is bioremediation? Advantages and Disadvantages

The ocean, soil and air are rapidly becoming polluted due to human activities. Pollutants accumulating in the environment threaten all living things. Pollution is a global problem. Although the places where the cities are located are more polluted, the pollutants are spreading all over the world. For example, a large plastic deposit called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has formed in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean. The human population is estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. With the increasing human population, the problem of environmental pollution is also growing. For this reason, scientists are constantly working on environmental pollution and are looking for various ways to solve this problem. One of these ways is the bioremediation process in which microorganisms are used.

What is bioremediation?

Microbes are microscopic organisms that occur naturally in all kinds of environments. Microbes are one of the most important decomposers in nature. Microbes have the ability to decompose a wide variety of organic compounds and absorb inorganic compounds. The process of removing pollutants from the environment by taking advantage of this ability of microbes is called “bioremediation”. Bioremediation is a biological process that converts pollutants into non-toxic substances. Bioremediation has been used to remove agricultural chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) that seep into groundwater from the soil. Certain toxic metals, such as selenium and arsenic compounds, can also be removed from water through bioremediation.
Mercury is an example of a toxic metal that can be removed from an environment through bioremediation. Mercury is an active component of some pesticides. It is also a byproduct of certain industries such as battery manufacturing. Mercury is usually found in very low concentrations in natural environments, but it is highly toxic because it accumulates in living tissues. A few bacterial species, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, can biotransform toxic mercury into non-toxic forms.

Factors affect the bioremediation

Many factors affect the bioremediation process. These factors are listed below:
1- Presence of microorganisms capable of degrading pollutants
2- Degradability of the pollutant
3- Type of environment (soil, air, water)
4- Optimum temperature and pH at which enzymes can work
5- Presence of oxygen or other electron acceptors
6- Presence of essential nutrients needed by the microorganism

Bioremediation of oil spills

Probably one of the most useful and interesting examples of the use of microbes for bioremediation is the cleanup of oil spills. Microbes have been used in the bioremediation of several oil spills in the past years. These are the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska (1989), the Prestige oil spill in Spain (2002), the Mediterranean spill from a Lebanese power plant (2006), and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010).
While much is known about the breakdown of oil by microbes, there is still much to be done and learned. We still cannot adequately predict oil degradation rates by natural microbial communities. Also, degradation is slow since petroleum compounds are extremely insoluble in water and are toxic to many microbes and other organisms.
Evaluating the impact of an oil spill is a complex problem that requires a team of scientists and engineers. As with many environmental issues, key members of the team are microbial ecologists and geomicrobiologists. Oil contaminated soils and waters are the subject of microbial ecology, and any deterioration in underground environments is a subject of geomicrobiology.

Advantages of Bioremediation

• Bioremediation is to clean the nature with the help of nature. Residues are harmless products such as carbon dioxide, water and cell biomass.
• Theoretically, bioremediation is based on the natural elimination of pollutants. Therefore, it eliminates the problems associated with the processing and storage of pollutants.
• No other environment such as air, water or soil is contaminated during the removal of pollutants.
• Bioremediation is done where there is contamination. Therefore, it eliminates potential threats to human health and the environment due to the transport of pollutants.
• Bioremediation can be cheaper than other refinement technologies, as it is performed with microorganisms.

Disadvantages of bioremediation

• Pollutants in which bioremediation can be used are limited. Because not all pollutants are suitable for rapid and complete degradation.
• Biological processes often operate under very specific conditions. The optimum conditions required by these processes may not be provided in the field where the pollutants are present.
• Although the methods developed in laboratories are promising, it is difficult to apply these methods in field operations.
• Pollutants in the environment can be a mixture in different proportions as solid, liquid and gas. It may be necessary to design specific bioremediation practices suitable for pollutant mixtures in field.
• Bioremediation processes are generally longer than other refinement methods.
• It is difficult to evaluate the performance of bioremediation procedures against standardized criteria.

We must now realize that the quality of life of people is inextricably linked with the overall quality of the environment. Mankind believed in the past that land, water and resources were unlimited. However, we know that today’s resources in the world are limited and moreover, they are being depleted rapidly due to human activities. Problems arising from environmental pollution are now gaining increasing importance in many countries. The problem is worldwide and it is necessary to know how much land we have polluted on earth and to develop projects to save them.

This content was originally posted on my Blog named Thinkerbug.