Why some scientists prefer using microorganisms in their boiremediation process?

Question

Why some scientists prefer using microorganisms in their boiremediation process?

Answer 1

When you use the term "bioremediation", you mean remediation through biological agents. It's kind of built into the term.

So perhaps what you are asking is which some people would prefer bioremediation as a remediation strategy.

There are two primary concerns in remediation: 1) cost, and 2) speed. In some cases you want something done really fast. Let's say, for instance, you want to build a road in an area that is impacted with a contaminant. You've got to get rid of it now, and you really don't care what it costs - speed is the primary determinant. If speed is your primary objective, bioremediation is not going to work.

There are other scenarios when you don't care how long it takes to remediate something, you just want it done really cheaply. Here price is your primary consideration. Price is the primary driver of bioremediation strategies.

Microorganisms are popular remedial alternative because they are cheap. In some cases they are free. If we have a site that is impacted, we can let the natural organisms already in the ground continue to break up whatever is your contaminatn of concern. This is called natural attenuation, and it is rather popular because it is somewhat free.

In some cases the biological organisms require some assistance. We may inject oxygen into the ground to help them out a bit. This is called augmented bioremediation. Again, this tends to be cheaper then the alternatives which may require fancy machinery and are labor intensive.

In some cases we actually inject some genetically engineered organism into the ground. These things tend to be a pain because they require precise water chemistries and temperatures. I have heard of situations where somebody went to inject a bunch of bacteria into the ground, only to find out that their bacteria were dead because of improper temperatures. In addition, once you are buying a genetically engineered organism, you are losing the primary objective of bioremediation: low price.

I personally find that bioremdiation stratagies don't really work all that well. It is rather difficult to keep the organisms alive and happy. Still, we do recommend them from time to time because they are generally the cheapest available remediation strategy.