Prepared by: Mohammad Sobri bin Abu Othman & Yoob Norismawandi bin Yoob Ismail

WHAT IS BIOREMEDIATION?

use of microorganisms or plants to detect, degrade or remove environmental pollutants from water, soil, and air (Science Communication Conference, 2002).

Use of living organisms, mainly microorganisms to degrade the environmental contaminants into less toxic forms (Vidali, 2001).

the application of biological processes principles to the treatment of ground, water, soil, and sludge contaminated with hazardous chemicals (N Abdullah, UTM).

the use of biological system for the reduction of pollutions from air, aquatic, or terrestrial system (Anjala Durgapal, Dept. of Botany - Uttrakhand).

Bioremediation can be divided into:

a)In situ – treatment of pollutants on siteb)Ex situ – removal of pollutants to be treated in other facilities

Bioventing:is the most common in situ treatment involves supplying air and nutrients through wells to contaminated soil to stimulate the indigenous bacteria. employs low air flow rates and provides only the amount of oxygen necessary for the biodegradation.

In situ biodegradation: involves supplying oxygen and nutrients stimulate naturally occurring bacteria to degrade organic contaminants.

Biosparging: involves the injection of air under pressure below the water table toincrease groundwater oxygen concentrations and enhance the rate of biological degradation of contaminantsby naturally occurring bacteria.

Slurry reactors/aqueous reactors:

used for ex situ treatment of contaminated soil and water pumped up from a contaminated plume.

involves the processing of contaminated solid material (soil, sediment, sludge) or water through an engineered containment system.

a containment vessel and apparatus used to create a three-phase (solid, liquid, and gas) mixing condition to increase the bioremediation rate of soil bound and water-soluble pollutants as a water slurry of the contaminated soil and biomass (usually indigenous microorganisms) capable of degrading target contaminants

Bioaugmentation:

involves the addition of microorganisms indigenous to the contaminated sites.

Two factors limit the use of added microbial cultures in a landtreatment unit: 1) nonindigenous cultures rarely compete well enough with an indigenous population to develop and sustain useful population levels 2) most soils with long-term exposure to biodegradable waste have indigenous microorganisms that are effective degrades if the land treatment unit is well managed.

OVERVIEW OF BIOREMEDIATION

TECHNOLO-GY

EXAMPLES BENEFITS LIMITATIONS FACTORS TO CONSIDER

in situ i. In situ bioremediation

ii. Biospargingiii. Bioventingiv. bioaugmentation

i. Most cost efficient

ii. Non-invasiveiii. Relatively

passiveiv. Treats soil and

water

i. Environmental constraints

ii. Longer treatment period

iii. Monitoring difficulties

i. Biodegradative abilities of microorganisms

ii. Presence of metal/inorganics

iii. Environmental parameters

iv. Solubilityv. Distribution of

pollutants

ex situ i. Landfarmingii. Compostingiii. Biopiles

i. Cost efficientii. Can be done on

site

i. Space requiredii. Long periodiii. Controls of abioticiv. Transfer problem

*same (see above)

Bioreactors i. Slurry reactorii. Aqueous reactor

i. Optimized environmental parameters

ii. Rapid degradation

i. High cost (capital &

operating cost)

*same (see above)

COPPER

Cu, with atomic number 29 classified as transition metal group 11 of periodic table

SOURCES OF HEAVY METAL (COPPER)

come from natural as well as artificial source Natural sources- rock weathering

- Soil erosion- dissolution of water soluble

salts

Heavy metal- released to the river/ocean from numerous sources.

Typical sources- municipal wastewater-treatment plants

- manufacturing industries, - mining, - rural agricultural cultivation &

fertilization. transported as either dissolved species in water/

integral part of suspended sediments. may be volatilized to the atmosphere or stored in

riverbed sediments. Toxic heavy metal- taken up by organisms; the metals dissolved in water have the greatest

potential of causing the most deleterious effects.

Copper In Organisms

found in the respiratory pigments of many mollusks and crustaceans.

in jaws of Glycera, have a structural role in strengthening the tips of the jaws.

accumulated in the gills of the ampharetid Melinna palmata, works as defensive form since reducing taste of the worm to its predators.

Copper is essential at low concentration but can be toxic at high concentration.

ISSUES related& REGULATIONS

Copper Abundance in Malaysia water

STATE NO. OF STATION

NO. OF SAMPLE TSS COPPER

Perlis 2 16 64 0

Pulau Langkawi 7 35 94 9

Kedah 3 14 100 0

Pulau Pinang 25 191 74 4

Perak 13 52 100 0

Selangor 14 49 98 0

N. Sembilan 13 78 100 0

Melaka 9 28 92 0

Johor 51 122 60 9

Pahang 11 80 19 0

Terengganu 19 76 74 42

Kelantan 10 40 73 30

W.P. Labuan 5 20 60 0

Sabah 26 111 35 3

Sarawak 21 123 78 0

Malaysia (Total) 229 1035

Average (%) 75 6

Case Study: The Causes Of Pollutions

A.Antifouling paints

has been used in marine antifouling paints a long time ago.

a sea freighter, Pac Barones carrying 23000 tons of copper’s powder sank in 448m depth of California coast after a collision in 1987 .

the toxic cargo successfully spread through the seabed.

40km away, a plume of copper-tainted water was detected from the shipwreck.

the survivor of marine lives decline significantly.

B. Tributyl tin; antifouling paint additive (associated problem)

was banned in the US in 1980s.

found accumulated in dolphins.

affects the immune system, reducing the ability to fight against bacterial and viral diseases .

also found in small whales.

REGULATIONS/LAWS

Oslo Convention establishment of “Black”, “Gray”, and “White” lists.Black-list is the most strictest while white-listed compound is the least copper is in the Grey-list

APPLICATION of Bioremediation on Copper

APPLICATION: Bioremediation of Heavy Metals, Copper

i.Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) biofilm

ii.Wood Decay Fungi

iii.Acidothermophilic AutotrophesMicroorganisms can only absorb heavy

metals but they can not metabolize heavy

metals (not biodegradable)

i) Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC)The rotational speed

of the discs wasmaintained at 10

revolution per minute since previous experiments had

shown that this speed did not disrupt the biofilm and

provided enough turbulence to keep the heavy metals in

suspension and thus in contact with the immobilized

biomass (Costley and Wallis, 1999).

*Percentage removal of Cu2+ by biofilm

use HCl, since dilute HCl was clearly effective as a metal-desorbing agent in this method.

ii) Wood Decay Fungi

To treat copper treated wood. The wood was estimated to

perform 20-50 years service life.

Then, the wood discarded as waste.

*specimen for baiting experiment

iii) Acidothermophilic Autotrophes

*CuS biosolubilization

*CuFeS2 biosolubilization

LIMITING FACTORS

Existence of a microbial population capable of degrading the pollutants.

Availability of contaminants to the microbial population.

Types of soil

Temperature

pH environmental factorOxygen level

Nutrients

Electron acceptors

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES;Bioremediation

ADVANTAGES Bioremediation a natural process residues for the treatment are usually harmless

products bioremediation is useful for the complete

destruction of a wide variety of contaminant transferring contaminants from one environmental

medium to another carried out on site, often without causing a major

disruption of normal activities less expensive than other technologies that are

used for clean-up of hazardous waste

DISADVANTAGES Bioremediation is limited to those compounds that

are biodegradable some concerns that the products of

biodegradation highly specific difficult to extrapolate from bench and pilot-scale

studies to full-scale field operations takes longer than other treatment options Regulatory uncertainty remains regarding

acceptable performance criteria for bioremediation.

CONCLUSION;Future of Bioremediation

CONCLUSION: Future Of Bioremediation

It is cost-effective

A beneficial addition to chemical and physical methods of managing wastes and environmental pollutants – offers a saving of 60 to 90% over landfills disposal costs.

New tools and techniques for use in bioremediation (in situ & ex situ) are contributing to the rapid growth of this field.

New technologies can provide better monitoring ways and directly deal with many types of wastes.

Genetically engineered microbes will require further study to clarify issues of safety.

A large number of multiple metal tolerant fungi and bacteria, which has been identified can be used for biosorption of multimetal pollutants.

Facing policy makers in the future to decide where available bioremediation revenues will benefit human and environmental health.

It will play an increasingly important role.