Enzymatic Treatment of Petroleum-Based Hydrocarbons

Petroleum and petroleum-based products are highly beneficial for our daily life system. Functioning of several industries and machineries directly depends on different forms of petroleum. There are strong possibilities of the release of such petroleum and petroleum-based compounds like aliphatic as well as aromatic hydrocarbons during their refining process, usage, storage, transport, and other activities due to the accidents, leakages, or just a little lack of awareness. Their exposure to soils or water causes serious problems for aquatic as well as human beings. The efficient removal or detoxification of such pollutants is the demand of the present time. The use of microbial sources for the bioremediation of such petroleum wastes may be promising technique because it does not require any drastic conditions for detoxification process and by-products produced by them are also harmless unlike chemical and other techniques. In this regard, this chapter discusses the enzymatic role in detoxification or bioremediation of petroleum-based hydrocarbons.

Sources of Air Pollution

This chapter describes how air is a complex natural gaseous system essential to support life on Earth. Air pollution comes from a wide variety of sources, which discharge of harmful substances into the atmosphere, causing adverse effects to humans and the environment. They can be natural or anthropogenic. Natural air pollution sources are multiple and include volcanic eruption, fire, ocean vapors, dust storms and fermentation of organic materials. However, the range and quantities of chemicals discharged into the atmosphere from industry, transport, agriculture, energy production, domestic heating, and many other human activities, have increased dramatically. Some pollutants are emitted directly into the atmosphere and are known as primary pollutants (NOx, SOx, particulate matter, etc.). Others are formed in the air as a result of chemical reactions with other pollutants and atmospheric gases; these are known as secondary pollutants like ozone. This chapter provides an overview on air pollution sources as well as the ways in which pollutants can affect human health and the environment.

Microbe Mediated Bioconversion of Fruit Waste Into Value Added Products

Biosynthetic capabilities of microbes have solved several hurdles in the human welfare. Microbes have served and continue to serve as imperial candidates in both production and management strategies. Microbe mediated techniques has emerged as ecofriendly and sustainable alternative to their synthetic counterparts. Fruit based industries produces large volumes of solid and liquid wastes contributing to increase in pollution load. Disposal of these waste not only represent loss of valuable biomass but also leads to substantial increase in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). However, in spite of their pollution and hazard aspects, in many cases, fruit processing wastes have a promising potential for being chief raw materials for secondary industries. This chapter summarizes microbe mediated fermentative utilization of fruit waste, for the production of value added products like organic acid, single cell protein, bioplastics, enzymes and biogas.

Cellulolytic Microorganisms

Cellulose is the most abundant polymer in plants and the microbial conversion of cellulose is a subject of active research. Currently, cellulase is commonly used in many industrial applications, especially in animal feed, textile, waste water, brewing and wine making. A challenging strategy for the efficient utilization of this renewable resource is to use it as a base material for the production of desired metabolites. This chapter therefore focuses on exploring the cellulase producing bacteria and optimizing the parameters for the enzyme cellulase under varied conditions. Cellulolytic bacteria can be exploited for cellulase production which serves wide applications in industries, pharmaceuticals and further, use of these CDB as bio-inoculants can be incorporated to enhance organic matter decomposition in soil to increase soil fertility and to minimize the fertilizer application. It finds wide applications in reducing the environmental pollution and promote sustainable agriculture.

Insilico Tools to Study the Bioremediation in Microorganisms

Bioinformatics is the new area of science to study various living organisms, plants and animals. Bioremediation is the removal of toxic pollutants from the environment using microorganisms. Many of the databases are available online and can be used for the study of the microorganism genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics. This chapter mainly focuses the uses of recent databases and tools for the exploration of microorganisms.

Agricultural Waste Management for Bioethanol Production

This chapter contends that bioethanol has received the most attention over other fuels due to less emission of greenhouse gases and production from renewable sources. It is mainly produced from sugar containing feedstocks. Since feedstocks are utilized as food for humans, its consumption in bioethanol production creates a food crisis for the entire world. Bioethanol derived from agriculture waste, which is most abundant at global level, is the best option. Agriculture wastes contain lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses which creates hindrances during conversion to ethanol. Pretreatment of agriculture wastes remove lignin, hemicelluloses and then enzymatically hydrolyzed into sugars. Both pentose and hexose sugars are fermented to bioethanol. There are still various problems for developing an economically feasible technology but a major one is the resistance to degradation of the agricultural material. Use of two or more pretreatment methods for delignification and the use of genetically modified agricultural biomass can be developed for economically feasible ethanol production.

Microbial Bioreactor Systems for Dehalogenation of Organic Pollutants

Halogenated organic compounds having many beneficial applications, both in industries and agriculture sectors. Basically, the uses are as pesticides, solvents, surfactants, and plastics. However, their large, widespread uses throughout the world have resulted the negative impact on the environment. Considering their treatment process are widely accepted by using the bioreactor systems. The large variety of microorganisms present in the bioreactor and their interaction is the key to the effective treatment and removal of these compounds. Usually the microbes produce the enzymes known as dehalogenase to remove the halogen form the compounds to make it non-toxic. Many of the different steps and about the microbial groups in degradation process of halogenated compounds are well understood, but more details concerning the microbial community are yet to be discovered. This chapter describes about the different dehalogenation systems available in microbes and their ultimate application in different bioreactor systems for the degradation analysis of several harmful halogenated compounds.

Anaerobic Digestion Enhancement With Microbial Electrolysis Cells

The engineering of replacements for crude oil is a priority within industrial biotechnology. Biogas, produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) during organic waste degradation, has been used for electricity generation and heating. Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) are an emerging technology which when combined with AD can produce higher yields of such energy whilst simultaneously treating waste water and sludge. MECs are bioelectrochemical systems which utilize the metabolism of microbes to oxidize organics. The majority of the research has been focused on biohydrogen production, despite associated issues, which has resulted in poor commercialization prospects. Consequently, scientists are now suggesting that methane production should be the focus of MEC technology. This chapter presents lab research on the bioprocessing of biomethane using AD and MECs and addresses important issues, namely the lack of pilot-scale studies. Downstream processing techniques are discussed, as well as a novel suggestion of further utilising MECs in the purification process.

Sources of Soil Pollution

Soil, though often overlooked, is a critical component of the earth and is essential for human existence. Soil pollution has deteriorated large areas of agricultural land around the globe. Human health is at risk due to the high concentration of pollutants found in soils and food produced in polluted lands. Soil pollution may arise from a wide range of sources that can be discrete point sources, or diffuse sources. It is usually due to domestic, municipal, industrial, mining, and agricultural wastes as well as agrochemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. Each source has specific characteristics, briefly presented below. The most dangerous categories of soil pollutants are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyl, pesticides, heavy metals, and radionuclides. New soil pollutants, such as veterinary medicines, have emerged with industrialization and globalization. This chapter deals with sources of soil pollution, pollutants generated from these sources and their possible adverse effects on the environment.

Role of Microorganisms in Bioremediation of Pesticides

This chapter describes how exposure to pesticides has become one of the most prominent components of current agriculture. Pesticides have high impact on farmer's economy as they prevent and minimize agricultural losses due to pests (insects, fungi, nematode), improve yield and quality food in terms of superficial appeal. However, these synthetic pesticides have serious environmental concerns and create a variety of toxic effects in living beings. In this regard, the bioremediation approach can be a suitable alternative over the conventional treatment methods for the treatment of pesticides-contaminated sites. Bioremediation is the use of microorganisms or their enzymes to degrade and detoxify the pesticide from the environment. Microbial interactions greatly influence natural bio remedial processes occurring in soil. Microorganisms involved various biochemical mechanisms for the degradation of pesticides, such as oxidation and reduction reactions. This chapter provides an overview on the nature, characteristics and toxicity of pesticides in environment and role of microbes in bioremediation of pesticides.