Abstract
Upgradation and advancement in every field related to mankind leads to the origin of a contaminated environment. Development in science and technology enabled humans to combat the rate of contaminants by using biological agents, commonly known as bioremediation. The chapter deals with the different species of bioremediation agents viz. bacteria, fungi, algae, plants, animals and organic wastes to treat diverse environmental pollution. The extent of environmental bioremediation encompasses inorganic viz. arsenic, chromium, mercury, cyanide etc. and organics viz. Hydrocarbons, petroleum, pesticides etc. Thus, the reasons for the control of water and soil by considering bioremediation are concern on public health, protection of environment, and cost reduction of decontamination. Different case studies have been demonstrated herein to understand the enigmatic process and evaluate practical efficacy of the environment to decontaminate itself by the presence of various biological organisms.
TopA Brief Historical Overview
In bioremediation, different microorganisms, fungi, algae and plant species has been extensively used to decrease, degrade, transform and detoxify the pollutants from the contaminated sites. Potential living organisms present in the contaminated sites spontaneously may involve in the remediation process, mimicking this natural process, researchers are trying to make the process more efficient.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ecosystem Services: Services provided by the ecosystem by the means of provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. This is a self-regulating mechanism driven by the ecosystem components which fulfill the basic needs of human beings.
Bioremediation: It is an eco-friendly biological process employed in remediation of environmental problems (such as, pollution, contamination, etc.) using biological system or organisms.
Ecological Engineering: It refers to an emerging technology for designing the sustainable ecosystem by integrating human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both or the fusion of engineering and ecology for the development of human and environment by the design, construction and management of ecosystems which are beneficial for both human and environment.
Contaminants: Presence of unwanted substances in any matrix which cause several physicochemical changes and made the substrate polluted, toxic, unsafe, harmful to environment as well as causes health hazards.
Biological Tools: It refers to organisms or biological substances used in any systems.
Eco-Friendly: It refers to method or product or system having no negative impacts on environment.
Decontamination: The process involved in the elimination or neutralization of contaminants.
Living Machine: Biotic system or organisms used in bioremediation process to protection environment from degradation/destruction.
Phytoremediation: Use of different types of plants in the bioremediation, such as purification of wastewater, air and reclamation of contaminated soil are known as phytoremediation.
Zooremediation: It is a kind of bioremediation process driven by the animal systems using the mechanism of uptake, accumulation, and transformation of contaminants.