Applied and Sustainable Methods to Manage Environmental Contaminants with Natural and Fortified Microbial Biosorbents

Major advancements within industries such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and petrochemicals, in addition to other regular anthropogenic activities release a variety of toxic pollutants into the environment. As a result, air pollution, water contamination and soil toxicity are now common which pose serious threats to plant and animal health. The accumulation of these toxic contaminants in the environment also poses serious threats to human health, such as genetic disorders including cancer, respiratory distress, reproductive abnormalities, skin irritation and others. Available strategies to deal with such environmental issues are mostly based on chemical processes, which possess various environmental hazards. The mechanism of biosorption is diverse in nature as the sorbents may be produced from different unique biological sources. Cost effective feedstock materials synthesized from biological waste like agriculture, food, animal, and forestry, rendering bio-sorbents as alternative remedial resource for eradicating diverse contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, organic pollutants, and various nutrients) from the air, water, and soil. Clay, chitin, peat, microbial biomass, and agricultural wastes can serve as common biosorbents either singly or in conjunction with others. As a result, they are extensively used in elimination of dyes, heavy metals, toxic industrial effluents, synthetic fertilizers/pesticides, atmospheric pollutants and nuclear waste from the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial environment.

Coexistence of different environmental pollutants such as heavy metals, textile dyes, plastics and microplastics, medical wastes, toxic gases and various agrochemicals may impose significant threat to environment and their synergistic effect may increase the damaging impact on any life form existing on this planet. Currently, available physicochemical methods to remediate those pollutants are expensive and flaccid in nature. Alternatively, bioremediation using microbes seems more efficient, sustainable, and cost effective. Biosorption of contaminants may be achieved with absorption or adsorption by using various natural materials. Among them, bio-sorbent prepared from whole microbial cell or fortified cell biomass can have a significant impact in this field. Microbes are small natural agents used in variety of fermentation process generating huge amount of unused biomass which can be used for further bioremediation process. Microbial cells like bacteria, yeast, fungi and microalgae by their inherent metabolic processes transform pollutants with or without slight pathway modifications to substrates. Their metabolic vulnerability facilitates the channeling of the pollutant into the normal microbial metabolic pathway for its adsorption and degradation. However extensive research is needed to find out new microbial sources to make more effective natural or fortified microbial cells to address the environmental pollution and its sustainability issue in more effectual way.

This research topic will investigate the recent advancements in identifying new microbes for bioremediation, innovative technologies developed in cost-effective way to remove industrial pollutants and fortification of microbial biomass to manage the environmental pollution issue in a more sustainable way. The scope of this research topic welcomes submissions on the following themes but is not limited to:

• Investigation and assessment of risks and interactions of pollutants in the air, water, and soil
• Synergistic effects of environmental contaminants on aquatic environment and their remediation
• Effect of industrial toxic materials on soil health and their
decontamination strategies
• Evaluation of air pollution and advanced methods for their mitigation
• Genetically modified organisms for bioremediation