introduction to environmental biotechnology

• Bioremediation is the use of microorganisms or plants to remove pollutants from soil, water, or air.
• Environmental biotechnology is the application of processes for the protection and restoration of the quality of the environment.
• Environmental biotechnology can be used for detection and bioremediation of contaminants.
• Environmental biotechnology can be used to prevent unfavourable changes in manufacturing processes by substituting traditional ones.
• Environmental biotechnology can be used to remediate the emission of pollutants into the environment in a number of ways.
• Treatment is required for industrial, agricultural and domestic process wastes.
• An urgent need is to reduce the production of pollutants at source through clean technology.
• Environment refers to the surroundings of an object or the natural environment, which includes all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth
• The environment consists of physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism
• The environment has biotic components (microorganisms) and abiotic components (temperature, pressure, light, moisture)
• Pollution is the condition that disturbs the harmony between the biotic and abiotic components of the environment
• The onslaught on the environment came through increased population pressure leading to over exploitation of land, water, air resources, and destruction of bio-wealth and biodiversity
• Introduction of pollutants like xenobiotics affects the environment by disturbing the biotic components
• Environmental biotechnology is the application of biotechnology to all aspects of the environment, covering existing pollution in terms of detection and bioremediation of contaminants
• Treatment is required for industrial, agricultural, and domestic process wastes
• An urgent need is to reduce the production of pollutants at the source
• Environmental pollutants range from metals to gases and present three problems in the environment that can be addressed by biotechnological processes
• Chemical techniques are often used to determine the concentration of pollutants in samples, while bioindicators and biomarkers can be used to monitor pollution in situ
• Microorganisms provide an alternative to chemical methods in a process known as Bioremediation, which involves the activities of aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophic microbes to reduce the concentration, remove, or detoxify pollutants from the environment
• Heavy metals released into the environment pose a severe problem and are not degraded by biological systems, but several microorganisms and plants can accumulate metals in a process known as Bioaccumulation
• Organic wastes can be treated and degraded biologically both aerobically and anaerobically
• Xenobiotics are synthetic compounds that resist degradation, and recalcitrants are compounds that resist any degradation (chemical or biological)
• Bioremediation can have differing outcomes and consequences, including mineralization, transformation to another compound, accumulation within an organism, polymerization, or binding to natural materials in soils, sediments, or water
• Bioremediation can be applied in various ways such as above-ground bioreactors, solid-phase treatment, composting, landfarming, and in-situ treatment
• Above-ground bioreactors are used to treat liquids, vapors, or solids in a slurry phase and may use suspended microorganisms or adsorbed biofilm, singly or in combination
• Solid-phase treatments involve placing soils within a containment system and percolating water and nutrients through the pile
• Composting involves adding large amounts of organic matter to contaminated material, followed by aerobic incubation
• Landfarming spreads contaminated soils, sludges, or sediments on fields and cultivates them, while insitu bioremediation involves stimulating indigenous microbial populations to degrade contaminants
• Bioventing is becoming an attractive option for insitu biodegradation of readily degradable pollutants like petroleum hydrocarbons
• The selection of microbiological processes for treating soils and groundwater contamination with organic pollutants requires site characterization, selection of an appropriate microorganism or consortium, and information about degradation pathways and rates
• Bioremediation competes economically and functionally with alternate remediation technologies such as incineration and chemical treatments
• Before process options can be selected, site characterization and feasibility studies must determine key chemical, physical, and microbiological properties of the site
• Pollution


  The condition that disturbs the harmony between the biotic and abiotic components of the environment
• Not all pollutants are manufactured or synthetic. Any biologically active substance has the potential to give rise to a pollution effect.
• It is difficult to classify pollutants as they form a broad spectrum and not a single class.
• Pollutant (UK EPA 1990 definition)

  Substance released into any environmental medium that can cause harm to human, or any other living organisms supported by the environment
• Factors considered when classifying pollutants

  • Toxicity
  • Persistence
  • Mobility
  • Ease of control
  • Bioaccumulation
  • Chemistry
• Toxicity


  The potential damage to life, can be both short and long term, related to concentration and time of exposure
• Persistence


  The duration of the effect, linked to mobility and bioaccumulation
• Mobility


  The tendency of a pollutant to disperse or dilute, affects the concentration