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ENZYMES FOR ENHANCING BIOREMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM-CONTAMINATED SOILS: A BRIEF REVIEW
Citation:
Fan, C. AND S. Krishnamurthy. ENZYMES FOR ENHANCING BIOREMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM-CONTAMINATED SOILS: A BRIEF REVIEW. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-95/369, 1995.
Description:
During the 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of thousands of underground storage tanks (and aboveground storage tanks) containing petroleum products and hazardous chemicals were installed. any of these tanks either have been abandoned or have exceeded their useful lives and are leaking, thereby posting a serious threat to the nation's surface and groundwater supplies, as well as to public health. leaning up releases of petroleum hydrocarbons or other organic chemicals in the subsurface environment is real-world problem. iological treatment of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil is considered to be a relatively low-cost and safe technology; however, its potential for effectively treating recalcitrant wastes has not been fully explored. or millions of years, microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, actinomycete, protozoa, and others have performed the function of recycling organic matter from which new plant life can grow. his 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. lassifications and functions of enzymes, as well as the microbes, in degrading the organic contaminants are discussed. n 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.