Holistic Approach to Remediate Heavy Metals and Radionuclides

• Published in: Industrial Wastewater Reuse pp. 113 - 132
• Main Author: Sethi, Sonia
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer 2023; Springer Nature Singapore
• Subjects: Heavy-metals; Microbes-enhanced phytoremediation; Radionuclides; Sustainability; Toxicity
• ISBN: 981992488X; 9789819924882
• DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-2489-9_6

The environment on this planet is under threat from a variety of contaminants, the most serious of which are heavy metal and radioactive pollution. Environmental radionuclides are a major human and environmental health hazard. Heavy metals (HMs) and radionuclides are released into the environment as a result of geological and anthropogenic activity, and they enter through wastewater, soil, and sediment. These inorganic contaminants can’t be destroyed and end up harming the human body’s key organs. Waste management from various sources must be properly managed, as well as environmentally acceptable remediation approaches. Bioremediation has long been seen as a more environmentally friendly option to physically harmful treatment. Because of innate genetic, biochemical, and physiological features, microbes can biotransform, biosorb, and biomineralise these metals and radionuclides. Native or genetically engineered (GE) microbes have been developed for the clean-up of environmental pollutants, including radionuclides. Recent breakthroughs have been made, thanks to the identification of new bacteria isolated from contaminated sites or extreme conditions, providing new powerful instruments in bioremediation processes, as the chemistry and biology of polluted sites heavily influence the bioremediation approach used. There is a scarcity of data on enzymatic metal reduction in natural environments. Phytoremediation, which has been employed in this context for many years, is another option. In the remediation process, the unique plant–microbe system plays a critical role. Microorganisms are presently being identified and their biological functions are being studied in order to utilise them in the remediation of harmful chemicals in the environment. The development of new techniques, such as genomic and proteomic approaches, and the availability of annotated bacterial genome sequences in relation to the environment, certainly hold promise for us. Significant progress has been made in environmental technology and more specifically in understanding the precise mechanism of in situ interactions between bacteria and metals.