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A review of applications of biotechnology in the environment
2014
Environmental biotechnology refers to the use of microorganisms to improve the environmental quality and so far it has focused on the development of technologies to clean up the aquatic, terrestrial and aerial environment. This article is an overview of environmental applications of biotechnology. Environmental remediation, pollution prevention, detection and monitoring with regard to the achievements are among the perspectives in the development of biotechnology. A variety of relevant topics have been chosen to illustrate each of the main areas of environmental biotechnology: wastewater treatment, soil treatment and treatment of gaseous pollutants, using microbiological processes. The distinct role of environmental biotechnology in the future would be to contribute with new solutions and directions in the remediation of polluted environments, to minimize future waste release, and to create pollution prevention alternatives.
Orbital - The Electronic Journal of Chemistry, 2016
Pesticides play an important role in the increase of productivity in agro-industry and the extensive use of these substances cause environmental, economic and social damage in time. Microbial activity is an essential part in the dynamics and the destination of pesticides in the environment. This research focuses in prospecting and characterizing bacterial strains which are potentially able to degrade/tolerate Atrazine, Chlorpyrifos, Methyl parathion and Picloram. Bacteria were isolated from water samples collected according to the degree of salinity along the Pacotí River's estuary (Ceará), located in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. A total of 49 bacterial strains were isolated, all of which tolerated/ downgraded concentrations up to 200mg/L of picloram, atrazine and methyl parathion. Tested in pesticide mixtures, the percentage and tolerance level showed that 73% grew in concentrations up to 200mg/L, 17,4% tolerated/ downgraded up to 150ml/L and the remainder only grew in concentrations under 100ml/L. The strains which had the best performance against pesticides, by points, were P1 (13Db e 14D); P2 (10E); P3 (2M, 9M, 10M, 12Mb, 14M, 17M 18Mp 19M e 20M). A high percentage of isolates (67%) expressed luminescence when exposed to the pesticides atrazine and methyl parathion in concentrations between 150 and 200ml/L.
Chemosphere, 2000
To be able to predict the degradation (rate) of organic chemicals (e.g. pesticides) in the ®eld, knowledge of the environmental conditions that are of in¯uence on the degradation process are of importance. In the present study an experimental system is described which is used to study the degradation of organic pollutants in mixed bacteria cultures originating from surface water. With this system the degradation of compounds can be followed for relatively long experimental periods (months). In addition, it is possible to vary dierent environmental parameters in order to investigate their in¯uences on the degradation of the chemical. These preliminary experiments show that growth and ÔcompositionÕ of the bacteria culture have comparable patterns in parallel experiments. The ®rst order degradation rate constant for the test compound dichloran, as calculated from these experiments under these circumstances, is about 0.002 h À1 . Ó
Environmental Biotechnology: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges
This paper describes the state-of-the-art and possibilities of environmental biotechnology and reviews its various areas together with their related issues and implications. Considering the number of problems that define and concretize the field of environmental biotechnology, the role of some bioprocesses and biosystems for environmental protection, control and health based on the utilization of living organisms are analyzed. Environmental remediation, pollution prevention, detection and monitoring are evaluated considering the achievements, as well as the perspectives in the development of biotechnology. Various relevant topics have been chosen to illustrate each of the main areas of environmental biotechnology: wastewater treatment, soil treatment, solid waste treatment, and waste gas treatment, dealing with both the microbiological and process engineering aspects. The distinct role of environmental biotechnology in the future is emphasized considering the opportunities to contribute with new solutions and directions in remediation of contaminated environments, minimizing future waste release and creating pollution prevention alternatives. To take advantage of these opportunities, innovative new strategies, which advance the use of molecular biological methods and genetic engineering technology, are examined. These methods would improve the understanding of existing biological processes in order to increase their efficiency, productivity, and flexibility. Examples of the development and implementation of such strategies are included. Also, the contribution of environmental biotechnology to the progress of a more sustainable society is revealed.
2017
Bio-Technology encompasses a wide range of specialized discipline right from age old fermentation process to the latest techniques of genetic engineering. It has received tremendous attention in recent years due to its potentialities and applications in aquaculture, agriculture, immunology, chemical production, industrial processes, pollution control etc. But modern environmental protection is unthinkable without biotechnology. Biotechnological methods are indispensible in fields of soil, waste water and exhaust air purification. Besides microbial and system biology contribute to increase in efficiency of purification and biowaste recycling plants. These days biotechnology is being put to varied uses. One of the potential uses of it is in the environmental protection and in conserving the natural resources and endangered plants of economic and medical uses. Biotechnology not only plays important role in remedying environmental damage but also in detection of environmental damage. Bu...
Pesticide relevance and their microbial degradation: a-state-of-art
Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology, 2014
The extensive use of pesticide causes imbalance in properties of soil, water and air environments due to having problem of natural degradation. Such chemicals create diverse environmental problem via biomagnifications. Currently, microbial degradation is one of the important techniques for amputation and degradation of pesticide from agricultural soils. Some studies have reported that the genetically modified microorganism has ability to degrade specific pesticide but problem is that they cannot introduce in the field because they cause some other environmental problems. Only combined microbial consortia of indigenous and naturally occurring microbes isolated from particular contaminated environment have ability to degrade pesticides at faster rate. The bioaugumentation processes like addition of necessary nutrients or organic matter are required to speed up the rate of degradation of a contaminant by the indigenous microbes. The use of indigenous microbial strains having plant growth activities is ecologically superior over the chemical methods. In this review, we have attempted to discuss the recent challenge of pesticide problem in soil environment and their biodegradation with the help of effective indigenous pesticides degrading microorganisms. Further, we highlighted and explored the molecular mechanism for the pesticide degradation in soil with effective indigenous microbial consortium. This review suggests that the use of pesticide degrading microbial consortia which is an eco-friendly technology may be suitable for the sustainable agriculture production.
Microbiology for chemical engineers—from macro to micro scale
Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2007
Recent developments in microbial techniques (such as PCR, GE, FISH) have allowed researchers to detect, identify and quantify microorganisms without the limitation of culture-dependent methods. This has given both engineers and scientists a more fundamental understanding about systems containing microorganisms. These techniques can be used to monitor bacteria in wastewater treatment systems, soil and sea, industrial fermentation, food technology, and improve floccability, etc. However, despite these techniques being readily available and relatively cheap, they are not widely used by engineers. Hence, the aim of this paper is to introduce these techniques, and their applications, to chemical engineers. Two different studies related to industrial wastewater treatment, but applicable to general microorganism systems, will be presented: (1) microbial stability of pure cultures, and (2) bioreactor population shifts during alternating operational conditions. In (1), two bioreactors, inoculated with two different pure cultures, (A) Xanthobacter aut GJ10 and (B) Bulkholderia sp JS150, degrading 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and monochlorobenzene (MCB), respectively, were followed over time (Emanuelsson et al ., 2005). Specific and universal 16S rRNA oligonucleotide probes were used to identify the bacteria. It was found that bioreactor (A) remained pure for 290 days, whereas bioreactor (B) became contaminated within one week. The difference in behaviour is attributed to the pathway required to degrade DCE. In (2), the stability of a bacterial strain, which was isolated on the basis of its capability to degrade 2-fluorobenzoate from contaminated soil, in three different, up-flow fixed bed reactors operated under shock loads and starvation periods, was followed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) (Emanuelsson et al ., 2006). All bioreactors were rapidly colonised by different bacteria; however, the communities remained fairly stable over time, and shifts in bacterial populations were mainly found during the starvation periods.
Microbial Biosensors as Pesticide Detector: An Overview
Journal of Sensors, 2021
Farmers are highly dependent upon agrochemicals to boost crop production through soil fertilization and and insect pests, pathogens, parasites, and weeds management . However, contentious application of agrochemicals on the farm has aggravated residual accumulation and has become problematic for environmental safety besides causing disease to humans and other animals. Thus, the analysis of chemical residues from the environment is vital for policymakers and communities. Mostly, chemists were devoted to analyzing the existing contaminants from different sources by using highly sophisticated chromatographic equipment, although it is time taking, laborious, costly, and that required well-trained professionals. However, biosensors are more important to analyze chemical contaminants from different samples using various bioreporters integrated with electrochemical and optical transducers. Microbes are metabolically diverse, amenable for genetic engineering, cost effective in culturing, an...