RESEARCH NEEDS FOR BIOAUGMENTATION - Bioaugmentation for Groundwater Remediation - page 350

12.6 CONCLUSIONS
The story of chlorinated ethene bioremediation and bioaugmentation, encompassing both
the discovery of a novel group of microbes and the development of a truly successful
bioremediation approach, has reenergized the scientific and engineering communities to look
more carefully for other opportunities to improve bioremediation. Research in this field has
been fueled by a curiosity-driven quest to discover new life, by rapidly evolving technologies to
study microbes and processes that occur at the molecular scale and below, and by the need to
find cost-effective approaches for cleaning up the environment. It is absolutely certain that
many more microbes with unusual modes of life will be discovered. Such organisms, and the
techniques developed to study them, also will provide important strategies and tools needed for
greener approaches to remediation and site management.
The research needs identified span a wide range of scales, from that of individual
molecules to that of entire ecosystems. Some of the most important and potentially rewarding
research needs for enhanced application of bioaugmentation have been reviewed and succinctly
summarized in text boxes within this chapter. One overarching need is to consider sustainability
in the development of new compounds and materials. Bioaugmentation researchers must work
to ensure that the collective knowledge gained from the study of the capabilities of microbes
and their environments is used by the chemical industry and regulatory agencies to design,
develop and permit new compounds that look and behave more like those that exist already in
nature, and to which organisms have become adapted, so that they are more likely to be
degraded when released into the environment.
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