 What
is bioremediation |
Chlorinated solvents and Hexavalent chromium are known to be toxics and carcinogens.
Industrial accidents, leakages in pipes or storage tanks, and improper handling
of these compounds have lead to the contamination of subsurface soil and
groundwater. Bioremediation is one of the recent popular low cost technologies
that can be effectively applied to remediate the soil and groundwater contaminated
with these toxics. In nature there are several microbes which are capable
of detoxifying and degrading the toxic chemicals. Usually, microbes use these
contaminants to obtain energy, nutrients or for respiration. During these
processes the contaminants are degraded to less toxic or nontoxic end products.
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| Biostimulation |
In this type of bioremediation the degradation
capacity of microbes, indigenous to contaminated site, is
exploited. Usually appropriate nutrients are applied to the
contaminated sites to stimulate the population of microbes.
We practice biostimulation by applying appropriate nutrients
to the sites contaminated with Chlorinated solvents and Hexavalent
chromium.
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Biostimulation |
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| Bioaugmentation |
| If the indigenous population of microbes is not capable of fully degrading the
contaminants, external source of super microbes are applied to the contaminated
media along with the nutrients. These externally added microbes multiply and
increase in population while degrading the contaminants and using the added
nutrients. |
Bioaugmentation
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