18 - Biofilm in bioremediation

Abstract

Increased contamination in the environment with toxic pollutants has been a great challenge for living organisms. There is a need to develop an effective strategy that can apply for environmental renewal. The major problem with conventional methods such as chemical and physical in terms of their efficiency and economy used for cleaning of pollutants is inadequacy and high economic costs. The biological processes for treating toxic effluents are better than chemical and physical methods in terms of their efficiency and economy and the potential of biofilm communities for bioremediation processes. Though biofilms are recognized to cause troubles in several areas of human health and the industry, biofilms are vital in a number of engineering applications including wastewater management, bioproduction of valued chemicals, and bioremediation. Intriguingly, the use of biofilms is efficient for bioremediation as biofilms absorb, immobilize, and degrade many environmental contaminants. Bioremediation is a developing technology having a progressive potential of cleaning pollutants. Therefore biofilm produced by many microorganisms will probably offer an appropriate microenvironment for effective bioremediation activities.