Chapter 3: Microbial consortium mediated remediation of petrochemical contaminated soil

The contamination of petroleum hydrocarbons during the production, processing, and distribution of synthetic oil results in soil pollution, which is a global problem. This contamination directly endangers the environment, human health, and both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Organic pollutants can be naturally broken down by bacteria through the process of bioremediation under regulated settings or below the regulatory bodies’ critical concentration limits. Enhancing microbial activity through bioremediation involves giving them the right amount of nutrients and other vital components for their metabolism. Because these toxins are so hazardous to living things and the environment, microbial breakdown is essential. Microbes use their metabolic processes, which are mostly mediated by enzymes, to do bioremediation. By interacting specifically or nonspecifically with substrate-ligands, enzymes contribute significantly to the detoxification process. In order for bioremediation to be successful, pollutants must be enzymatically contacted by bacteria and converted into less dangerous compounds. By using them as carbon and energy sources or by co-metabolism, microorganisms can convert organic pollutants like petroleum hydrocarbons and diesel into less harmful byproducts. In addition to fungi and mixed associations, bacterial consortia are also quite effective at degrading hydrocarbon pollutants. In this degradation process, bacterial genera like Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Citrobacter, Serratia, Alcaligenes, Corynebacterium, and Arthrobacter as well as fungal species like Candida, Saccharomyces, and Fusarium play significant roles. The rate at which pollutants are removed during bioremediation is influenced by a number of biotic and abiotic factors. Globally, a number of methods, techniques, and strategies, such as bio-stimulation, bio-augmentation, bio-attenuation, bio-venting, and bio-piles, are being used to speed up the breakdown of pollutants. The effectiveness of hydrocarbon detoxification in the environment can be increased and harm to living things can be reduced by combining immobilization techniques with microbial remediation approaches. Future possibilities for microbial remediation have been further improved by recent developments in biotechnological research, such as the isolation, characterisation, and identification of genetically modified microorganisms (GMOs). In order to treat soil pollution, these methods offer an alternative to physical and chemical remediation techniques.