Biotechnology in Environmental Monitoring and Pollution Abatement 2015.

Abstract

Rapid industrial growth has led to elevated discharges of toxic chemicals and nutrients in water bodies. The level of a particular pollutant discharged into water bodies depends on industrial activities in the vicinity. Industries such as textiles, mining, tanneries, metal plating, fertilizer and agroindustries, batteries, pesticides, ore refineries, petrochemicals, and paper manufacturing are amongst others that contribute greatly to soil, sediment, air, and water pollution problems. Some of the chemicals are not biodegradable and therefore tend to accumulate in tissues and bioaccumulate in the food chain. This results in health problems in human beings and death of aquatic organisms. In water bodies, the presence of nitrogen and phosphorus increases the production of biomass in aquatic systems, thereby impairing the water quality and threatening the natural balance of these ecosystems. Although stringent nitrogen and phosphorus discharge standards from wastewater have been set in many countries, industries often face problems in meeting these requirements. From the regulatory perspective of a particular country, it is necessary to develop new or optimize the existing wastewater treatment technologies for compliance with the latest discharge standards. The demand for the use of sustainable and ecofriendly environmental processes is rapidly growing subjected to economic, public, and legislation pressure. Biotechnology provides a plethora of opportunities for effectively addressing issues pertaining to the monitoring, assessment, modeling, and treatment of contaminated soil, sediment, air, and water streams. The different biotechnologies available nowadays represent both well-established and novel (bio)technologies, although several aspects of their performance remain to be tested, for instance, the use of novel biocatalysts and reactor designs, a fundamental understanding of microbial community dynamics and mechanisms occurring within a (bio)reactor, the assessment of the performance of (bio)reactors during long-term operation, and its modeling [1–6]. If these mechanisms are understood and the knowledge gap is bridged, novel biotechniques will potentially change the way users rebuild technologies for the sustainable use of different biological processes for soil, sediment, air, and wastewater treatment.