Chapter 1

Bioremediation

A Sustainable Approach for Environmental

Cleanup

Bharti Singh,¹ Anju Malik^1,* and Vinod Kumar Garg²

1.1 Introduction

Both urbanization and industrialization have resulted in a rise of contaminated land and water. As

both these activities are growing at a rapid rate, they are creating stress on renewable as well as

non-renewable resources. As a result, environmental pollution has increased globally during the

last several decades. The expansion of the manufacturing and agricultural industries has led to an

increase in the release of a wide variety of xenobiotic substances into the environment. Excessive

release of hazardous waste has resulted in a lack of clean water and soil disturbances, restricting

agricultural output (Kamaludeen et al. 2003). Heavy metals, petroleum oil, pesticides, hydrocarbons

such as aliphatic, aromatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitroaromatic compounds,

chlorinated hydrocarbons such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and perchloroethylene,

organophosphorus compounds, organic solvents (phenolic compounds) and phthalates are

all possible contaminants in hazardous waste (Megharaj et al. 2011). The economically and

environmentally viable management of these wastes is a serious challenge around the world.

According to third-world network data, more than 450 million kg of hazardous waste is released

into the air, water and land on a global scale (Singh 2014). If these pollutants are discharged into

the environment without being correctly treated, they may cause serious health concerns as well as

the extinction of many species of fauna and flora. Various kinds of contaminants are carried into the

ground via air and water, resulting in a slew of major environmental and health issues around the

world (Boopathy 2000). Different types of technologies have been developed for waste disposal that

use high-temperature incineration, soil washing, adsorption, flocculation, landfilling, pyrolysis and

chemical decomposition etc. Despite their high potential for effectiveness, these techniques are also

inconvenient, expensive and undesirable.

Many researchers have increased their efforts to identify more environmentally friendly and

cost-effective alternatives for the use of hazardous chemicals and treatments to eliminate current

dangerous contaminants for sustainable cleanup of the environment. Several underdeveloped

countries cannot afford to build environmentally friendly and economically viable machinery for

1 Department of Energy and Environmental Sciences, Chaudhary Devilal University, Sirsa, Haryana, India.

2 Department of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Central University of

Punjab, Bhatinda, Punjab, India.

* Corresponding author: anjumalik@cdlu.ac.in, anjumalik27@yahoo.com