Bioremediation

[aftabac]

Hi
Bioremediation is a good way to environmental pollution. but i want to know that when bacteria get the heavy metals from the environment in the form of bioaccumulation, bioadsorption or biosorption then what is the end to this, mean the heavy metal are still in the environment, then how this is the solution to heavy metals??


waiting for some suitable answe
best regards
aftab ahmad

[hsip_15]

Haik,

I am working in a lab which focuses a lot on bioremediation, and biosorption.

The bacteria which is resistant to certain heavy metals will actually change the form of metals into a less toxic form and they might be of precipitated solids or in soluble form.

For example, a bacteria that can change Chromium(VI) which is a very highly toxic metal into Chromium(III) which is a less toxic compound to the environment. The tolerance level for Chromium(III) is much higher than Chromium(VI). This is already a way to help in reducing the environmental pollution caused by heavy metals.

[aftabac]

Hi
you are right, but the work that is done so far on bioremediation is not applied to remove the pollutant. As i also know that there are hundreds of differnt labs that are working on bioremediation but the work which is done is only used to get the degree but that is not applied in most of the cases to clean the environment.
Bioremediation is a very good and cheap approach to remove the pollutants from the environment. so it should be applied right now to protect the environment from damaging effect of pollutants.

[hsip_15]

Dear Aftabac,

True it should be applied right now. I agree with that point very very much. It is actually still in research and collaboration with industries right now.

If you know about the waste water treatment system, this will help you to get a clearer picture of how it really works. Biological treatment using bioremediation is unable to replace the conventional chemical treatment completely due to cost and also efficiency.

Therefore, it is used only in the metal treatment part of the system and also as a polishing unit since chemical methods are sometimes unable to treat the waste water up to the standards required by the authorities (Based on the EPA standards). There are still a lot of research opportunities that can be explored for better application of biological treatment method.