Bioremediation as a useful biotechnological strategy for the treatment of phenolics: advances, challenges and future prospects.

CINTIA E. PAISIO; ANA L. WEVAR OLLER; SABRINA G. IBAÑEZ; MELINA A. TALANO; PAOLA S. GONZÁLEZ; MARÍA I. MEDINA; ELIZABETH AGOSTINI

Bioremediation: Processes, challenges and future prospects

Nova Science Publishers,

Lugar: New York; Año: 2014; p. 1 - 26

Bioremediation is an attractive biotechnological tool for the treatment of water and effluents containing toxic pollutants, including phenolics, which are very hazardous pollutants due to their high toxicity and environmental persistence. Several bacterial strains are used for biodegradation or biotransformation of these compounds, as an ecofriendly technology to treat contaminated environments. Most of these bacteria can utilize phenolics as sole carbon and energy source and the metabolic pathways implicated in this process are well established. Immobilization of bacterial cells on different support matrices represents a very important advance in the application of bioremediation. Furthermore, the use of this strategy and the design of new types of bioreactors would allow to remediate great volumes of highly contaminated water and effluents. Due to the continuous release of industrial wastewater the application and improvement of different strategies could be very useful. This chapter highlights the more recent applications of bacteria for phenol bioremediation, new advances for the mprovement of this technology as well as the less explored aspects that must be deepened to assess the feasibility of phenolics bioremediation from highly contaminated water and effluents.