Bioremediation
What is it and how does it work?

Bioremediation and Waste Management

Biological treatment and our reliance on bacteria is not new or novel, it has played a central role in conventional waste treatment throughout the history of mankind. What is new however, is our growing understanding of the natural process and how we can utilize bacteria for industrial, agricultural and residential applications in breaking down and enhancing the removal process of agricultural wastewater, fertilizers, pesticides and controlling resulting odors, as well as industrial by-products and toxic chemicals, mining and oil production slug and other hazardous wastes, and are fundamental to sanitation clean-ups.

How it Works

Bioremediation consists mainly of biostimulation, where nutrients and/or oxygen are added to soil or water to stimulate native bacteria populations, and bioaugmentation, where external microorganisms, naturally occurring or engineered strains, are introduced to enhance the degradation process.

The primary use of biological agents has been in enhanced natural remediation and wastewater treatment of sanitation system for residential and municipalities, lakes and ponds, once-through lagoons for agricultural and industrial active wastewater systems. More recently bioremediation has expanded into the removal of toxic chemicals where contaminants treated have been primarily petroleum and other hydrocarbons, followed by wood preservatives, industrial solvents, pesticides, heavy metals and other hazardous wastes.

Bioremediation can usually be done on site, where contaminants are broken down to harmless byproducts. The biological systems used are often less expensive, and disruptive to the environment. In many case, bioremediation may be combined with other remediation methods in order to design a comprehensive treatment system that reduces overall costs and environmental impact.

Bioremediation is increasingly used as part of a treatment plan at sites where other unrelated conventional or alternative remediation methods are also at work. For this reason, it is sometimes difficult to define and identify a project and its associated costs as pertaining solely, or to what degree, to bioremediation.

Derivative and next-generation bioremediation technologies continue to move from research to commercial applications. More and more previously resistant compounds are proving to be susceptible to biodegradation under the proper conditions. The trends in research and development will remain an important force in bioremediation's continuing growth.