BIOREMEDIATION

Advantages of Bioremediation

• Bioremediation is a naturally occurring process and is perceived by the public as an acceptable waste treatment process for contaminated materials such as water, and soil.  The microbes that are used in the cleaning of the contaminate increase in numbers, when the contaminant is present, though when the contaminant is degraded the microbes population declines.  The residues left over from the treatment are usually harmless and are usually carbon dioxide, water, and cell biomass.

• Bioremediation is useful for the complete destruction of a wide variety of contaminants .  Many of the compounds that are legally considered to be a hazardous problem, can be transformed into harmless products.  The process of doing this eliminates the chance of future liability associated with bioremediation treatment and disposal of contaminated materials.

• Bioremediation makes the process of complete destruction of target pollutants completely possible.  Instead of transferring contaminants from one environment to another, for example land to water to air, it is completely eradicated.

• The process of bioremediation can be carried out on site , often without causing a major disruption or normal activities.  This process eliminates the need to transport quantities of water of the site and the potential threat of contamination to human health and to the environment that could possibly arise from the transportation from the site.

• Bioremediation is less expensive than other technologies that are used for cleanup of hazardous wastes.  

 

Disadvantages of Bioremediation

 

• Bioremediation is limited to the amount of compounds that are biodegradable.  Not all compounds are susceptible to rapid and complete degradation.

• Many people have concerns that the products of the biodegradation may be more persistent or toxic than that of the parent compound.

• The biological process is often highly specific.  The important site factors required for success include the presence of metabolically capable microbial populations, a suitable environmental growth condition, and the appropriate level of nutrients and contaminates. 

• Research for bioremediation is needed to develope and engineer technologies that can be appropriate for sites with complex mixtures of contaminates that may or may not be evenly dispersed throughout the environment. The contaminants may be present as a solid, liquid, or gas.

• The process of bioremediation takes longer than other treatments options, do to excavation, removal of water, soil or incineration.

• Regulatory uncertainty remains regarding acceptable preformance criteria for bioremediation.  There is no accepted definition of "clean". Evaluation of the preformance that bioremediation does is difficult, as there are no acceptable end pointsfor bioremediation treatments.

 

 

Many people worry about the fact that since many of the microbes used in the bioremediaiton process are genetically altered that they may pose a threat, by not being able to be controlled and that they will spread the waste or pollutants.  This has many people worried, though the fact the microbes only grow, as they are devouring the waste or pollutants that are contaminating, and when the waste is cleared up, the microbes die back down.