Microbiological Degradation of Organic Pollutants from Industrial Wastewater
Ayantika Banerjee, Moharana Choudhury, Arghya Chakravorty, Vimala Raghavan, Bhabatush Biswas, Siva Sankar Sana, Rehab Α. Rayan, Nalluri Abhishek, Neeta L. Lala, Seeram Ramakrishna
Abstract
Worldwide water demand has been rising at a rate of 1% every year and expected to increase toward 30% by 2050. This, apart from the unsustainable pressures on freshwater which is just 2.5% of the total earth's surface, water is under continuous degradation due to polluting discharges as a result of industrialization, urbanization, and chemical-based agriculture. Moreover, the brunt of climate change has made it a commodity scarcely available, with over two billion people experiencing high water stress in some countries. In such challenging times, with the Agenda – 2030 of the sustainable development goals on the one hand, and the extraordinary research on the other, has made a breakthrough means to the problem. The “means” is the “state of the art” technology on the “green synthesis” of nanoparticles (NPs) to degrade the organic as well as other toxic pollutants from the industrial wastewater. The “Green Synthesis” connotes high yielding biosynthesis of NPs using microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, algae, and plants. These are reliable, sustainable, eco-friendly, and with increased global average benefit-cost. These biogenic NPs with well-defined shape, size, and composition are developed by the method of a bottom-up approach. They undergo the systematic reactions of reduction or oxidation, producing microbial bio-enzymes or the phytochemicals of plants which are responsible for the reduction of metal salts and organic pollutants. They are biocompatible and are identified as hyper-accumulators of the pollutants with greater efficiency for detoxification. This chapter has reported various methods of development of these NPs and assessed their potentials in bioremediation to achieve the International goals.