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Bacterial Remediation

Bacterial remediation involves the use of bacteria to breakdown or consume contaminants. Bacteria are currently used to cleanup many types of water and soil pollution. While there are many pollutants that bacteria can't currently degrade, research in the field may soon expand the uses of this technology.

  1. Significance

    • Bacteria can utilize a large number of substances as food sources. Some species of bacteria can even breakdown and consume toxic chemicals and pollutants. The use of bacteria to cleanup polluted areas is called bacterial remediation or often the more general phrase--microbial remediation. Bacteria can breakdown pollutants that are otherwise difficult or expensive to extract from a site.

    Uses

    • Bacterial remediation is used for lots of different purposes. Specialized bacteria are used to help cleanup oil spill sites since they can degrade some constituents of crude oil. Bacteria are also used to treat municipal waste water before it is released back into the environment. Bacterial remediation is also used at some of the nation's Superfund sites to cost effectively breakdown widespread soil pollutants.

    Considerations

    • Bacterial remediation can be a very slow process compared to other types of remediation. It could take decades for bacteria to consume most of a pollutant present at a site; while simple, yet costly removal of all contaminated soils could leave the same site pollutant free in a much shorter time frame. Bacterial remediation can often be sped up by mixing or injecting oxygen or other food sources into the polluted substance.

    Limits

    • While bacteria can breakdown a wide range of contaminants including: pesticides, herbicides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and excess nutrients; they are not effective at removing all contaminants from the environment. The bacterial breakdown of some pollutants can lead to the creation of new pollutants that may be equally as hazardous to public health.

    Expert Insight

    • Research into bacterial remediation is still relatively young with new uses for the technology constantly being discovered. Advances in the study of genetic engineering will surely lead to improved and expanded use microbial remediation with scientists being able to tailor new strains of bacteria to breakdown specific pollutants.

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