Bioremediation
BIOREMEDIATION
SMALL SOLUTIONS TO BIG PROBLEMS
Prof Esta van Heerden | 051 401 2472 | vheerde@ufs.ac.za
Dr Peter Williams | 051 401 9039 | williamspj@ufs.ac.za
Mrs Elizabeth Ojo | 051 401 9897 | ojoao@ufs.ac.za
Mr Kay Kuloyo | 051 401 3721 | kuloyooo@ufs.ac.za
Mr Rohan Posthumus | 051 4013391 | posthumusjj@ufs.ac.za
BACKGROUND
Bioremediation is the use of living organisms, primarily microorganisms, to degrade environmental contaminants into less toxic forms. Research has demonstrated that there are very few environments where microbes have not been able to survive, adapt, and indeed, thrive. Microbes are able to utilize a near infinite combination of electron donors and electron acceptors to drive their metabolism. In addition to these redox (oxidation / reduction) reactions, they have also developed a myriad of other strategies enabling them to detoxify their environment.
Bioremediation applies these principles to select a suitable combination of microbial community activity, electron donor / acceptor / contaminant concentrations and other physical and practical parameters to remediate / recover a targeted pollutant.
Bioremediation strategies are often more beneficial than traditional strategies because it can be implemented in situ
(directly at the site of the contaminant with no need to transport the contaminated material). Innovative in situ technologies permit biological treatment of contaminated water by means of reactive molecules produced by microbes. This provides a simpler, less intrusive, and cheaper method than conventional
‘pump and treat’ systems that often employ hazardous chemicals that create and additional environmental risk.
The microbes may be indigenous to a contaminated area or they may be isolated from elsewhere and brought to the contaminated site. In the latter case, this is referred to as bio-augmentation, whereas, if the naturally occurring population is encouraged to proliferate by the addition of extraneous electron donors or
SMALL SOLUTIONS TO BIG PROBLEMS
Prof Esta van Heerden | 051 401 2472 | vheerde@ufs.ac.za
Dr Peter Williams | 051 401 9039 | williamspj@ufs.ac.za
Mrs Elizabeth Ojo | 051 401 9897 | ojoao@ufs.ac.za
Mr Kay Kuloyo | 051 401 3721 | kuloyooo@ufs.ac.za
Mr Rohan Posthumus | 051 4013391 | posthumusjj@ufs.ac.za
BACKGROUND
Bioremediation is the use of living organisms, primarily microorganisms, to degrade environmental contaminants into less toxic forms. Research has demonstrated that there are very few environments where microbes have not been able to survive, adapt, and indeed, thrive. Microbes are able to utilize a near infinite combination of electron donors and electron acceptors to drive their metabolism. In addition to these redox (oxidation / reduction) reactions, they have also developed a myriad of other strategies enabling them to detoxify their environment.
Bioremediation applies these principles to select a suitable combination of microbial community activity, electron donor / acceptor / contaminant concentrations and other physical and practical parameters to remediate / recover a targeted pollutant.
Bioremediation strategies are often more beneficial than traditional strategies because it can be implemented in situ
(directly at the site of the contaminant with no need to transport the contaminated material). Innovative in situ technologies permit biological treatment of contaminated water by means of reactive molecules produced by microbes. This provides a simpler, less intrusive, and cheaper method than conventional
‘pump and treat’ systems that often employ hazardous chemicals that create and additional environmental risk.
The microbes may be indigenous to a contaminated area or they may be isolated from elsewhere and brought to the contaminated site. In the latter case, this is referred to as bio-augmentation, whereas, if the naturally occurring population is encouraged to proliferate by the addition of extraneous electron donors or