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Título del libro: Water Microbiology: Types, Analyses And Disease-Causing Microorganisms
Título del capítulo: Biotechnology for remediation of domestic wastewater

Autores UNAM:
GERMAN CUEVAS RODRIGUEZ;
Autores externos:

Idioma:
Inglés
Año de publicación:
2011
Resumen:

Bioremediation is a technology that includes all those processes and actions that take place in the biotransformation of an environment, altered by contaminants, to its original status. Although the bioremediation concept is not new, the recent developments in microbiology and genetic engineering have made possible an unprecedented improvement on its methods, applicability and knowledge of the associated biologic mechanisms. In general these methods vary considerably, but they are based on the same principle: the use of microorganisms (indigenous or not) or their enzymes to accelerate the natural recovering of an impacted environment. The processes may also be stimulated by the optimization of physic-chemical conditions, such as addition of nutrients or oxygenation. Bioremediation methods transform the contaminants into substances that can be absorbed and used by the microorganisms with no toxic effect on them. They may be applied to recover any environmental system: air, soil or water. Concerning to water pollution, pesticides and fertilizers are the major sources of contamination, followed by industrial and domestic discharges, wastewater sludge disposal, and accidental releases. On this chapter we will present a review on the aerobic and anaerobic processes (nutrients removal) used in the microbiological treatment of domestic wastewater and some new improvements on the bioremediation techniques. Also, we discuss the biodiversity of microorganisms involved on these processes and the molecular tools that are applied to these studies. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.


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