Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
may specifically target the organism of interest for dechlorination, while a more widely used
electron donor (methanol, lactate, ethanol, vegetable oil or some combination) may stimulate
the growth of non-target organisms, leading to increased biomass but not necessarily increased
dechlorination capacity or rates. In choosing an electron donor, the more industry-based factors
of transport, delivery and cost must be balanced against creating the correct niche at the site for
the organism of interest.
12.4.5 Regulatory Considerations
Among the considerations when generating a bacterial culture for use as an industrial
bioremediation agent are the regulatory requirements for applying the culture at a site.
Typically these regulations stem from environmental protection agencies connected to state
and federal governments, and are geared towards preventing significant perturbations to the
environment and native flora at a contaminated site, as well as assessing the potential for
pathogenicity within the bioremediation culture. In order to address these requirements, a
proper characterization of the enrichment cultures must be undertaken, including identification
of the organisms present, as well as a detailed description of the active processes involved in the
remediation itself. Both of these prerequisites require a significant amount of research prior to
the culture being marketed as a commercial remediation tool.
12.4.6 Modeling of Sites, Dechlorination and Biological Activity
To be truly useful, the information gleaned from research into biological processes like
inhibition and dechlorination rates, as well as the physical characteristics known about the site,
need to be integrated into organism, microbial community, and flow and transport models to
provide truly predictive and diagnostic tools.
Here, a clear research need is to coordinate field measurements and information from
disparate measurement techniques into an effective site model, in order to get more value from
a limited set of monitoring data. Better communication between modelers and researchers
developing the physical, chemical and biological monitoring tools and approaches would aid
both sides in generating useful tools. Modelers need to focus on identifying measurable
parameters that can guide experimentalists, and conversely, experimentalists need to consider
how their data could be used in a model. As mentioned above, activity-based assays may
actually be more informative for flow and transport models than data from gene abundance
and gene expression measurements, and hence researchers could specifically focus on the set
of parameters that will aid modelers in defining a site's characteristics.
The ultimate goal in site modeling is to be able to accurately predict microbial and
contaminant fate at a given site, under a given set of conditions. Validated field scale models,
built on sound basic science and informed with experimental data that integrate processes
operating at all scales, are one way to account for parallel processes occurring at differing time
and length scales. These are complicated but powerful studies, and more of this kind of
research needs to occur.
12.5 FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
This section will examine some potential areas for expanding the capabilities of bioremediation
in the coming decades and centuries. While some techniques discussed belowmay be “out there” in
terms of their current feasibility, they represent potential avenues for novel tools, targeted
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