Biotreatment is the processing of waste or hazardous substance using living organisms such as bacteria, fungi or protozoa. It is an environmentally friendly, relatively simple and cost-effective alternative to physico-chemical clean-up options.

Oil Biodegradation

Petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 oil is toxic for most life forms and can cause pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

 of the environment

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

. Microbial biodegradation

Microbial biodegradation

Interest in the microbial biodegradation of pollutants has intensified in recent years as humanity strives to find sustainable ways to clean up contaminated environments...

 can be employed to degrade the oil.

Waste Biotreatment

Confined environments, such as bioreactors, have been engineered to overcome the physical, chemical and biological limiting factors of biotreatment processes in highly controlled systems. The great versatility in the design of confined environments allows the treatment of a wide range of wastes under optimized conditions. Microorganisms with a variety of genome

Genome

In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....

s and expressed transcripts and proteins can be used. Several high-throughput techniques originally developed for medical studies can be applied to assess biotreatment in confined environments.

Ex-situ Bioremediation of Contaminated Soils

Although in-situ bioremediation technologies for the treatment of contaminated soils are economically attractive, ex-situ approaches are more often used for surface contaminated soils (typical depths less than 5 m) since they allow a much tighter control of the bioremediation process and provide better estimates of the residual contamination at the end of the treatment period. Ex-situ bioremediation is the method of choice for hot spot treatment if they are reasonably accessible. Classical ex-situ technologies include Landfarming, Composting, Biopiling and Slurry-phase bioremediation. Ex-situ bioremediation typically refers to the methods applied for the remediation of excavated contaminated soils. Besides slurry-phase bioremediation where the soil is mixed with water and other nutrients in mechanically agitated bioreactors, ex-situ bioremediation includes solid phase bioremediation that covers the techniques of landfarming and the various forms of composting, namely windrows, biopiles and in-vessel composting.