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ENZYMES FOR ENHANCING BIOREMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM- CONTAMINATED SOILS: A BRIEF REVIEW
Citation:
Fan*, C Y. AND S. Krishnamurthy*. ENZYMES FOR ENHANCING BIOREMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM- CONTAMINATED SOILS: A BRIEF REVIEW. JOURNAL OF THE AIR & WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION. AWMA, Pittsburgh, PA, 45(6):453-460, (1995).
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Description:
During the 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of thousands of underground storage tanks (and above-ground storage tanks) containing petroleum products and hazardous chemicals were installed. Many of these tanks either have been abandoned or have exceeded their useful lives and are leaking, thereby posing a serious threat to the nation's surface abd groundwater supplies, as well as to public health. Cleaning up releases of petroleum hydrocarbons or other organic chemicals in the subsurface environment is a real-world problem. Biological treatment of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil is considered to be a relatively low-cost and safe technology; however, its potentital for effectively treating recalcitrant wasates has not been fully explored. For millions of years, microorganisms such as bacxteria, fungi, actinomycete, protozoa, and others have performed the function of recycling organic matter from which new plant life can grow. This paper examines the biological treatment technology for cleaning up petroleum product-contaminated soils, with special emphasis on microbial enzyme systems for enhancing the rate of biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons. Classifications and functions of enzymes, as well as the microbes, in degrading the organic contaminants are discussed. In addition, the weathering effect on biodegradation, types of hydrocarbon degraders, advantages associated with enzyme use, methods of enzyme extraction, and future research needs for development and evaluation of enzyme-assisted bioremediation are examined.
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ENZYMES FOR ENHANCING BIOREMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM- CONTAMINATED SOILS: A BRIEF REVIEW