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Bioremediation: Concept, Types, Advantages and Limitations

Bioremediation uses microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and algae to degrade environmental pollutants and detoxify hazardous substances. There are two types - in situ bioremediation treats pollutants on site, while ex situ treats them after removal. Bioremediation has advantages like being a natural process that produces harmless byproducts, and allowing for complete destruction of some contaminants. However, it is limited to biodegradable compounds, requires specific microbial populations and growth conditions, can be difficult to scale up, and takes more time than other treatment methods.

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226 views2 pages

Bioremediation: Concept, Types, Advantages and Limitations

Bioremediation uses microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and algae to degrade environmental pollutants and detoxify hazardous substances. There are two types - in situ bioremediation treats pollutants on site, while ex situ treats them after removal. Bioremediation has advantages like being a natural process that produces harmless byproducts, and allowing for complete destruction of some contaminants. However, it is limited to biodegradable compounds, requires specific microbial populations and growth conditions, can be difficult to scale up, and takes more time than other treatment methods.

Uploaded by

Shahriar Shamim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Bioremediation: Concept, Types, Advantages and Limitations

Concept of Bioremediation:
 Bioremediation is a biotechnical process which involves the removal of complex
material or contamination by degrading environmental pollutants using living micro-
organisms.
  It is a technique to eliminate pollutants from the environment, restoring contaminated
sites and avoiding future pollution.
 Bioremediation activity relies on natural capacity of micro-organisms to degrade
organic compounds.
 The ability of micro-organisms could be enhanced by providing optimum growth
conditions to micro-organism or by employing the genetically modified micro-
organisms (GMMs). This technology has been implemented to eradicate
environmentally hazardous chemicals and detoxify them into nontoxic forms.
 Micro-organisms play vital role in bioremediation, several members of microbial group
like algae, fungi and bacteria are able to solubilise, transport and deposit the metals,
and detoxify dyes and complex chemicals.
  The toxic waste materials are present in form of vapour, liquid or solid phases;
therefore, bioremediation technology differs depending upon nature of toxic material.
Types of bioremediation:
 Basically there are two methods of bioremediation based on removal and
transportation of wastes for treatment:
 In situ  bioremediation
 Ex situ bioremediation
Advantages of bioremediation:
 Natural process:
 Bioremediation being a natural process is accepted by the public as waste
treatment method for contaminated material such as soil.
 Microbes capable of degrading the contaminant, increase in numbers and
produce harmless products.
 The residues for the treatment are normally harmless products such as
carbon dioxide, water, and cell biomass.
 Complete destruction:
 Bioremediation is employed for the complete destruction of a wide variation
of contaminants.
 Many hazardous compounds can be transformed to non-toxic products.
This reduces the chance of future responsibility related with treatment and
disposal of contaminated material.
 Bioremediation can be performed on site treatment, without causing a
major disturbance of normal activities. This removes the requirement to
transport huge quantities of waste off site and thus decreases potential
hazards to human health and the environment that can arise during
transportation.
 Economic process:
 Bioremediation is cost effective in comparison to other methods that are
used for removal of hazardous waste.
Limitations of bioremediation:
 Limited up to biodegradable compounds:
 Bioremediation is limited to biodegradable compounds.
 This method is prone to rapid and complete degradation.
 Products of biodegradation may be more lasting or toxic than the parent
compound.
 Specificity:
 Biological processes are largely specific.
 The presence of metabolically capable microbial populations, suitable
environmental growth conditions, and adequate levels of nutrients and
contaminants are the important sites factors required for successful
bioremediation.
 Scale up limitation:
 It is tough to scale up from bench and pilot scale studies to full scale field
operations.
 Technological advancement :
 Research is required to develop and advance bioremediation technologies
that are appropriate for sites with complex mixtures of contaminants that
are not evenly distributed in the environment i.e. it may be present as
solids, liquids, and gases.
 Tedious process:
 Bioremediation consumes much time compared to other treatment options,
such as excavation and removal of soil from contaminated site.
 Regulatory uncertainty:
 We are not sure to say that remediation is 100% completed, as there is no
known definition of clean.
 Due to that performance evaluation of bioremediation is complex, and
there is no fixed endpoint for bioremediation treatments

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