Bioremediation Technology: A Greener and Sustainable Approach for Restoration of Environmental Pollution - Applied Environmental Biotechnology: Present Scenario and Future Trends - page 1

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Bioremediation Technology:
A Greener and Sustainable
Approach for Restoration
of Environmental Pollution

Shaili Srivastava

Abstract

Bioremediation has the potential technique to restore the polluted environ-
ment including water and soil by the use of living plants and microorgan-
isms. The bioremediation technology is greener clean and safe technology
for the cleanup of contaminated site. This chapter will focus on the biological
treatment processes by microorganisms that currently play a major role in
preventing and reducing the extent of organic and inorganic environmental
contamination from the industrial, agricultural, and municipal waste. Biore-
mediation is concerned with the biological restoration of contaminated sites
and content of the chapter also reflects the current trends of bioremediation
technology and the limitations of bioremediation. Environmental genomics
technique is the useful for the advanced treatment of waste site as well as ge-
nome-enabled studies of microbial physiology and ecology which are being
applied to the field of bioremediation, and to anticipate additional applica-
tions of genomics that are likely in the near future.

Keywords
Bioremediation ﾷ Environment ﾷ Genomics ﾷ Microbes

1.1 Introduction accidental (e.g., chemical or oil spills). Detoxi-

fication of the contaminated sites is expensive
and time consuming by conventional chemical
or physical methods. Bioremediation is a com-
bination of two words, “bio,” means living and
“remediate” means to solve a problem or to bring
the sites and affairs into the original state, and
“bioremediate” means to use biological organ-
isms to solve an environmental problem such
as contaminated soil or ground water, through
the technological innovations. The technique of
bioremediation uses living microorganisms usu-
ally bacteria and fungi to remove pollutants from
soil and water. This approach is potentially more

The organic and inorganic compounds are re-
leased during the production, storage, transport,
and use of organic and inorganic chemicals into
the environment every year as a result of various
developmental activities. In some cases these re-
leases are deliberate and well regulated (e.g., in-
dustrial emissions) while in other cases they are