What is a Bioremediation ?

Question

What is a Bioremediation ?

Answer 1

Bioremediation uses naturally occurring microorganisms to degrade various types of wastes. Like all living creatures, microbes need nutrients, carbon, and energy to survive and multiply. Such organisms are capable of breaking down organic contaminants to obtain food and energy, typically degrading them into simple organic compounds, carbon dioxide, water, salts, and other harmless substances. This technology has been proven to work on diverse waste streams, especially petroleum hydrocarbons, and more recently on recalcitrant chlorinated solvents.

Answer 2

Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the natural environment altered by contaminants to its original condition. Bioremediation may be employed to attack specific soil contaminants, such as degradation of chlorinated hydrocarbons by bacteria. An example of a more general approach is the cleanup of oil spills by the addition of nitrate and/or sulfate fertilisers to facilitate the decomposition of crude oil by indigenous or exogenous bacteria