Environmental Bioremediation Technologies
The rapid expansion and increasing sophistication of various industries in the past century has remarkably increased the amount and complexity of toxic waste effluents, which may be bioremediated by suitable plants & microbes, either natural occurring or tailor-made for the specific purpose. This technology is termed as bioremediation. Bioremediation is an eco- friendly, cost-effective and natural technology targeted to remove heavy metals, radionuclides, xenobiotic compounds, organic waste, pesticides etc. from contaminated sites or industrial discharges through biological means. Since this technology is used in in-situ conditions, it does not physically disturb the site unlike conventional methods i.e. chemical or mechanical methods. In this technology, higher plants or microbes are used alone or in combination for phytoextraction of heavy metals from metal contaminated sites. Through microbial interventions, either the metals are immobilized or mobilized through redox conversions at contaminated sites. If mobilized, metal accumulating plants are put in place to accumulate metals in their body. Thenafter, metal-loaded plants are harvested and incernated to reduce the volume of waste and then disposed off as hazardous materials or used for recovery of precious metals, if possible. In case of immobilization, metals are no longer available to be toxic to organisms. Buy at Amazon or Comparison Shop at Best Buys Zone
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A groundbreaking text and professional resource on natural attenuation technology
Natural attenuation is rapidly becoming a widely used approach to manage groundwater and soil contamination by hazardous substances in petroleum-product releases and leachate from hazardous waste sites and landfills. This book provides, under one cover, the current methodologies needed by groundwater scientists and engineers in their efforts to evaluate subsurface contamination problems, to estimate risk to human health and ecosystems through mathematical models, and to design and formulate appropriate remediation strategies.
Incorporating the authors' extensive backgrounds as educators, researchers, and consultants in environmental biotechnology and hydrogeology, the text emphasizes new concepts and recent advances in the science, including:
- Quantification of the role of microbes in natural attenuation
- Biodegradation and chemical transformation principles
- Immobilization and phase change
- Biotransformation mechanisms
- Groundwater flow and contaminant transport
- Analytical models for contaminant transport and reaction processes
- Numerical modeling of contaminant transport, transformation, and degradation
Detailed descriptions of fundamental processes, characterization approaches, and analytical and numerical methods tied to relevant real-world applications make Bioremediation and Natural Attenuation: Process Fundamentals and Mathematical Models both a timely course text in hydrogeology and environmental engineering and a valuable reference for anyone in the groundwater or risk assessment professions. Buy at Amazon or Comparison Shop at Best Buys Zone