Environmental Remediation Processes Based on Microbiology and Analytical Chemistry

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Toxicity Reduction and Environmental Remediation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 6695

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemical Technology, Poznan University of Technology, Berdychowo 4, 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Interests: environmental microbiology; biodegradation of hydrocarbons, (bio)surfactants, herbicides and pharmaceuticals in aqueous and terrestrial environments; mechanisms of microbial adaptation to xenobiotics; environmental impact of ionic liquids
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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska, Polskiego 48, 60-627 Poznań, Poland
Interests: biodegradation of hydrocarbons and herbicides; ecotoxicology; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; wastewater treatment

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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 48, 60-627 Poznan, Poland

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemical Technology, Poznan University of Technology, Berdychowo 4, 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Interests: analytics and monitoring of anionic, non-ionic and cationic surfactants in various elements of the environment; biodegradation and non-biological methods of degradation of surfactants; photodegradation, sorption of surfactants on materials and biomass; toxicity of surfactants; wastewater treatment technologies; water treatment; environmental chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of our civilization is directly associated with the production of various chemical compounds, which often constitute an indispensable part of our everyday life. Examples of such compounds include fuels, pharmaceuticals, polymers, pesticides, and many more. At every stage of their production and usage, there is the danger of their unintentional release into the environment. In addition, many of these xenobiotics are deliberately applied into water or soil to achieve specific effects. In consequence, the natural environment is subject to an increasing threat of anthropogenic pollution. The growing environmental awareness combined with the sustainable development policy dictate the necessity to clean up the contaminated sites. To date, numerous physicochemical methods have been used for this purpose; however, in view of the recent changes in legislation, there is a notable interest in the use of biological methods either as sole treatment processes or as additional support to non-biological remediation. Moreover, recent years have shown the superiority of biological methods, which are still the cheapest and, above all, the most environmentally friendly approaches to decontamination. The progress of biodegradation processes must be monitored using a number of analytical techniques that will enable the precise tracing of the fate of pollutants in the examined environment.

The purpose of this Special Edition is to present the latest work regarding the use of microbiological as well as analytical methods applied during the remediation of contaminated environments. Taking into account the complexity and interdisciplinary character of environmental issues, this Special Edition is also an excellent opportunity to integrate the international society—to share our experiences, provide valuable guidelines, and improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. May our joint efforts result in the recognition of future challenges and introduction of efficient solutions.

Dr. Łukasz Chrzanowski
Dr. Paweł Cyplik
Dr. Roman Marecik
Dr. Bogdan Wyrwas
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • organic pollutants
  • inorganic pollutants
  • bioremediation
  • bioaugmentation
  • Analytical chemistry

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1363 KiB  
Article
Metagenomic Analysis for Evaluating Change in Bacterial Diversity in TPH-Contaminated Soil after Soil Remediation
by Jin-Wook Kim, Young-Kyu Hong, Hyuck-Soo Kim, Eun-Ji Oh, Yong-Ha Park and Sung-Chul Kim
Toxics 2021, 9(12), 319; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9120319 - 24 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3065
Abstract
Soil washing and landfarming processes are widely used to remediate total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH)-contaminated soil, but the impact of these processes on soil bacteria is not well understood. Four different states of soil (uncontaminated soil (control), TPH-contaminated soil (CS), after soil washing (SW), [...] Read more.
Soil washing and landfarming processes are widely used to remediate total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH)-contaminated soil, but the impact of these processes on soil bacteria is not well understood. Four different states of soil (uncontaminated soil (control), TPH-contaminated soil (CS), after soil washing (SW), and landfarming (LF)) were collected from a soil remediation facility to investigate the impact of TPH and soil remediation processes on soil bacterial populations by metagenomic analysis. Results showed that TPH contamination reduced the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) number and alpha diversity of soil bacteria. Compared to SW and LF remediation techniques, LF increased more bacterial richness and diversity than SW, indicating that LF is a more effective technique for TPH remediation in terms of microbial recovery. Among different bacterial species, Proteobacteria were the most abundant in all soil groups followed by Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Firmicutes. For each soil group, the distribution pattern of the Proteobacteria class was different. The most abundant classed were Alphaproteobacteria (16.56%) in uncontaminated soils, Deltaproteobacteria (34%) in TPH-contaminated soils, Betaproteobacteria (24%) in soil washing, and Gammaproteobacteria (24%) in landfarming, respectively. TPH-degrading bacteria were detected from soil washing (23%) and TPH-contaminated soils (21%) and decreased to 12% in landfarming soil. These results suggest that soil pollution can change the diversity of microbial groups and different remediation techniques have varied effective ranges for recovering bacterial communities and diversity. In conclusion, the landfarming process of TPH remediation is more advantageous than soil washing from the perspective of bacterial ecology. Full article
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15 pages, 3773 KiB  
Article
Degradation Products of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Their In Vitro Transformation by Ligninolytic Fungi
by Kamila Šrédlová, Kateřina Šírová, Tatiana Stella and Tomáš Cajthaml
Toxics 2021, 9(4), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9040081 - 8 Apr 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2649
Abstract
Metabolites of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs), chlorobenzyl alcohols (CB-OHs), and chlorobenzaldehydes (CB-CHOs)—were incubated in vitro with the extracellular liquid of Pleurotus ostreatus, which contains mainly laccase and low manganese-dependent peroxidase (MnP) activity. The enzymes were able to decrease the amount of [...] Read more.
Metabolites of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs), chlorobenzyl alcohols (CB-OHs), and chlorobenzaldehydes (CB-CHOs)—were incubated in vitro with the extracellular liquid of Pleurotus ostreatus, which contains mainly laccase and low manganese-dependent peroxidase (MnP) activity. The enzymes were able to decrease the amount of most of the tested OH-PCBs by > 80% within 1 h; the removal of more recalcitrant OH-PCBs was greatly enhanced by the addition of the laccase mediator syringaldehyde. Conversely, glutathione substantially hindered the reaction, suggesting that it acted as a laccase inhibitor. Hydroxylated dibenzofuran and chlorobenzoic acid were identified as transformation products of OH-PCBs. The extracellular enzymes also oxidized the CB-OHs to the corresponding CB-CHOs on the order of hours to days; however, the mediated and nonmediated setups exhibited only slight differences, and the participating enzymes could not be determined. When CB-CHOs were used as the substrates, only partial transformation was observed. In an additional experiment, the extracellular liquid of Irpex lacteus, which contains predominantly MnP, was able to efficiently transform CB-CHOs with the aid of glutathione; mono- and di-chloroacetophenones were detected as transformation products. These results demonstrate that extracellular enzymes of ligninolytic fungi can act on a wide range of PCB metabolites, emphasizing their potential for bioremediation. Full article
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