ABSTRACT
The term bioremediation is coined from two words bios means life and remediate means a correction measure to clean up the environment. In general, bioremediation can be defined as a unique microbial/ biological process that hastens the biodegradation of a pollutant by optimizing the environmental conditions. As such, it is an ecologically safe and economically viable method for remediation of contaminated environments. In other words, bioremediation is the use of microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and fungi), plants/algae (termed phytoremediation), or enzymes to realize the effective removal of hazardous pollutants from contaminated soil, sediments and water. Bioremediation can target a variety of media (wastewater, groundwater, soil/sludge, air) with multiple possibilities, for example, complete mineralization of organic compounds, and immobilization of non-degradable contaminants (Figure 1). Many studies have shown that bioremediation has received worldwide attention for cleaning most pollutant types, such as pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organic solvents. Of late, the concomitant biotechnological processes are also gaining importance for treatment of radioactive waste and military wastes. Despite having high prospective of this technology, the applications are still scarce due to limited understanding of the metabolic degradation pathways. Microorganisms like bacteria, fungi and algae take part in bioremediation and there are many reviews and journal publications in support of this remediation technology (Abdulsalam et al. 2011, Adams et al. 2015, Agamuthu and Dadrasnia 2013, Gavrilescu and Chisti 2005, Sasek and Cajthaml 2005, Singh et al. 2006, Vidali 2001).
