Breaking It Down
What is bioremediation? For general purposes, it’s helpful to have a solid background on what bioremediation is and how it works, and to understand how it may help. Although a complicated natural process, the benefits to both your business and to the environment are pretty simple.
Breaking It Down
You’ve seen oil spills, toxic air pollution, water contamination. Bioremediation cleans it up naturally. Bioremediation, by simple definition, is a subsection of biotechnology that uses living organisms to eliminate contaminants. By using microorganisms like bacteria, green plants, fungi, and other like substances, the process returns the site environment to its pre-chemical state naturally.
How Does It Happen?
There are two ways it can be done: 1) at the site of the contamination (in-situ) or 2) away from the site in another circumstance (ex-situ). This applies to cases where the soil needs excavating or the weather is not optimal, for example. The timeframe for either process is dependent upon a myriad of variables, including the size of the polluted site, the amount of contamination, and more.
Here’s a detailed look at methods:
- Aerobic – This is the most widely used form of bioremediation and has been generally preferred due to higher yield and the use of oxygen to begin the degradation process.
- Anaerobic – This method is used to treat gases and minimize the contaminants.
- Additives – In some cases. Additives may be used alongside the natural processes to enhance bioremediation.
Advantages – Why is it important?
The biggest advantage of bioremediation is utilizing natural, living microorganisms to clean up the contamination, thus restoring the existing ecosystem. Additionally, it recycles waste and it’s cheaper than other processes because it doesn’t require labor or equipment. Finally, because much of the work of bioremediation is underground, the process is rarely a disturbance to the surrounding areas.
Talk to an expert now to see how you can benefit from bioremediation at catawater.com.
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