Bioremediation Flashcards
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