Bioremediation Flashcards
(35 cards)
Whats bioremediation related to?
biotreatment
bioreclamation
biorestoration
Whats Xenobiotics?
Any foreign object to an organism
Don’t belong
Subtypes of bioremediation?
Biostimulation
Bioaugmentation
Intrinsic bioremediation
Why is bioremediation multi- faceted?
Deals with pollutants, organisms, and environments
2 categories of bioremediation?
- Insitu bioremediation Directly at site of pollution
Intrinsic bioremediation
Engineered bioremediation
Obvious example: oil spill on beach, phytoremediation - Ex-situ bioremediation
Removal of contaminated material for remediation at a designed place
Landfarms, biobeds, water treatment systems
Limitations of bioremediation?
- Adequate microorganism concentrations/populations
- Available electron acceptors
- Nutrients
- Non-toxic conditions
- Minimum carbon sources
3 main mechanisms of bioremediation? Best way **
Anaerobic
Aerobic
Sequential**
Organisms break organic compounds down to feed their own growth and reproduction by providing:
- carbon: structure and food
- electrons: energy
How does bioremediation work?
- Toxic compounds are food for microbes
- Looks at reduction potentials
List compounds from least to most biodegradable.
Pesticides Chlorinated Hydrocarbons Alcohols, esters Aromatic hydrocarbons Simple hydrocarbons and petroleum fuels
Advantages and Disadvantages of BR?
- *Advantages
- Natural process (public accepts)
- Can achieve complete destruction of contaminants (no “pass the problem”)
- Can be carried out on-site
- Can be less expensive than other hazardous clean-up
- *Disadvantages
- Can only bioremediate certain compounds
- Persistence/toxicity of biodegradation products?
- Delicate/intricate process
- Scale-up is difficult (lab to field)
- Longer timescale than other cleanup
Why isn’t it a magic bandaid?
- Same thing won’t work on every site
- Need to look into whats being left behind
- Takes a long time
What is the electron receptor in aerobic BR?
Oxygen
Bacterial Enzymes in BR.
Monooxygenases Dehydrogenases
- break organic bonds
- Suseptible to climatic factors
Indigenous pop benefits
If added to env- indigenous pop will outcompete
Bacterial remediation examples
Psuedomonas, Arthorobacter, Gordonia, Geobacter, Nocardia, and actinomycetes
Fungal enzymes in BR
Laccases, peroxidases, lipases, cellulases, and proteases, lignin/chitin-degrading enzymes
What is fungal BR good in?
- Fluctuating Environment
- Extreme environment-loving and huge metabolic diversity
Cons of fungal BR?
-Hard to grow in lab- don’t know full diversity
Examples of fungal BR
Candida (degrade formaldehyde), Gibeberella (cyanide), white rot fungi (chrysosporium) can degrade DDT, TNT, hydrocarbons, pentachlorophenol
Why are communities important?
- All activities depend on community presence
- Can promote growth of specialists
Even if we are good at uncovering the players,…
… we are not as well equipped to determine the functional layers
Whats phytoremediation? Phytostabilization? Phytovolatilization? Phytostimulation? Phytotransformation/phytodegradation? Phytoextraction?
Phytoremediation- Use plants to convert, remove, or sequester pollutants
(heavy metals, organic compounds)
*Effective, low-cost, environmentally friendly!!
- Phytostabilization- increase SA of roots to clean
- Phytovolatilization- Can get taken up by plant from soil and released in air
- Phytostimulation- plants need microbes to help roots; support microbial growth
- Phytotransformation/ phytodegradation- remove and transferred
- Phytoextraction- plant sucks up and stores; primary food source is a con; animals may eat toxins; highly monitered
Where is metal contamination from?
Mining activities, industry, waste disposal, agriculture, atmospheric deposition
