BIOREMEDIATION

A treatment process that uses microorganisms (yeast, fungi, or

bacteria) to break down, or degrade, hazardous substances into less
toxic or nontoxic substances (carbon dioxide and water)
 Conditions that favor Bioremediation

Temperature favorable for

organisms
Water available (near field capacity)
Nutrients (N, P, K) in adequate supply
C:N ratio of material < 30:1
Material added is similar to naturally
occurring organic material
Oxygen in sufficient quantity
In-situ-Bioremediation

Biostimulation (stimulates biological

activity)
Bioventing (Inject air/nutrients into
unsaturated zone good for midweight
petroleum, jet fuel)
Biosparging (Inject air/nutrients into
unsaturated and saturated zones)
Bioaugmentation (inoculates soil with
microbes)
Less expensive
Creates less dust
Less possibility of
contaminant release
into environment
Good for large volumes
Slower
Doesnt work well in
clays or highly layered
subsurfaces
 Ex-situ -Bioremediation
Slurry-phase Easier to control
Soil combined with Used to treat wider range
water/additives in tank, of contaminants and soil
microorganisms, nutrients, types
oxygen added
Costly
Solid-phase Faster
Land-farming: soil put on pad,
leachate collected
Soil biopiles: soil heaped, air
added
Composting: biodegradable
waste mixed with bulking agent
Land Applied waste added
directly to soil which is later
planted to a crop.
 Microbial reduction has effectively been used to
precipitate uranium from solution using defined
conditions in which the U(VI) was present in the form of
U(VI)-carbonate complex.
Both G. metallireducens and Desulfovibrio
desulfuricans rapidly converted high concentrations
(1mM) of U(VI) to U(IV) within several hours.
The precipitate was all extracellular as uranite (UO2).
The uranite readily settled to the bottom of the
incubation vessel or could be removed with filtration
. Alternatively,the organisms could be maintained
separately in a dialysis sac. The U(VI) diffused into the
sac, it got reduced by the organisms, forming a
precipitate at the bottom of the sac
Successful remediation has also been done on
contaminated soils on location using D. desulfuricans
D. vulgaris uses the c3 cytochrome as the reductase,
so the possibility of using cell-free fixed enzyme
systems and/or engineered organisms with enhanced
U(VI) reducing capacity for the treatment
B. megaterium
Thiobacillus
Fungi

Many bacterial genera are able to reduce Se(VI) and Se(IV)

to Se(0) but only a few are able to carry this out to conserve
energy to support growth
Diagram of mercuric ion resistance in Gram-negative bacteria,
showing the three transport systems, MerPT, MerC and MerF