Applications of Environmental

Biotechnology

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 Presented by
Rahima Akter, ID: 1506028
Sabrina Mamtaz, ID: 1506029
Ahsan Habib, ID: 1506030
Fahmida Humayra, ID: 1506032
Nadia Afroz, ID: 1506037
MD. Moniruzzaman, ID: 1406021
Tuhin Sarkar, ID: 1406038

Faculty of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering

Sylhet Agricultural University,
Sylhet-3100 2
 Overview
• Introduction
• Bioremediation
• Biomining
• Biomarker
• Biodegradation
• Sewage treatment/wastewater treatment
• Biosorption
• Biofiltration
• Biosensor
• Superbug
• Molecular ecology
• Biotransformation
• Bioplastic
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• Biofuel
 Introduction
• Environmental biotechnology may revamp the possibilities for the prevention of
pollution and ensuring the health of the environment through biomonitoring and
genetic engineering.

• Environmental biotechnology is concerned with the application of biotechnology to

solve problems in ecosystem.

• It can be considered as a driving force for integrated environmental protection leading

to sustainable development.

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 Bioremediation
• It involve the engineering of systems that use biological processes to
degrade, detoxify or accumulate contaminants.

• Bioremediation is a process in which microorganisms, green plants or

their enzymes for the remediation of contaminated environments and
their high-performance in biodegradation of pollutants.

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Bioremediation Treatment Methods

• Composting
Ex-situ • Biopiling
• Landfarming

• Biostimulation
In-situ • Bioventing

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 Types of Bioremediation

Phytoremediation

Microbial
Bioremediation remediation

Mycoremediation

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 Phytoremediation
• Involves the interaction of plant roots and the microorganisms associated
with these root systems to remediate soils containing elevated
concentrations of organic compounds.

• Alternative to engineering procedures that are usually more destructive to

the soil.

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 Types of Phytoremediation
Phytoextraction

Based on the ability of certain plants to gradually accumulate contaminants

(mainly metals) into their biomass.

Rhizofiltration

Involve the pumping of contaminated groundwater into troughs filled with

the large root systems of appropriate plant species.

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 Cont.

Phytostabilization

Immobilize contaminants through adsorption, accumulation, precipitation within

the root zone.

Phytodegradation

Attenuation of organic contaminants into less toxic substances within the

rhizosphere through biodegradation of soil microbes.

Phytovolatilization

Contaminants taken up by the roots through the plants to the leaves and are
volatized through stomata. 10
Mechanism of Phytoremediation

Figure 01: Mechanism of phytoremediation

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 Microbial Remediation
Use of microorganisms to degrade organic contaminants and to bind the use of metals in less

bioavailable form.

Mycoremediation
•White-rot fungi degrades a wide range of organic molecules that are broadly similar to lignin.

•The release of extra-cellular lignin-modifying enzymes, with a low substrate-specificity so they

can act upon various molecules.

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 Biomining

• Two stage combined biological system in order to perform the

extraction and recovery of the metals from ores.

• Most current biomining operations target valuable metals like copper,

uranium, nickel and gold.

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 Methods of Biomining
• In-situ leaching
• Dump leaching
• Heap leaching
• Vat leaching

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 Cont.

Figure 02: A flow diagram for microbial leaching

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 Biomarkers
• Biological measures of a biological state.
• An indicator of normal biological processes:
-pathogenic processes
-pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention.
• Used in biomonitoring programmers:
-exposure,
- effect,
-susceptibility.

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 Potential Use in Biomonitoring

 Molecular (gene expression, DNA integrity)

 Biochemical (enzymatic, specific proteins or indicator

compounds)

 Histo-cytopathological (cytological, histopathological)

 Physiological

 Behavioural
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 Significant Features of The Use of
Biomarkers
• Sublethal effects between contaminants and the organisms.

• Detect both known and unknown contaminants.

• Sub lethality and early detection of effects.

• Measure of bioavailable pollutants.

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 cont.

• Toxicity bioassays

-Pcbs (polychlorinated biphenyles)

-Pahs(polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons)

-Metals to give an expression

-Organophosphate
• Measure short-term predictors of long-term ecological effects.

• Biomonitoring, both in the marine and freshwater environment.

• Attribute exposure and risks to environmental pollutants.

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Biomarker of Trace Metal Exposure
Biomarker Contaminants initiating
response
Metallothioneins Cu, Zn, Cd, Co, Ni, Hg, Ag

Stress proteins Cu
Glutathionic Cd
trasferases
Lipid peroxidation Cd
Haem and Pb, As, Hg
porphyrins
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 Biodegradation of Environmental
Pollutants
• Biologically catalyzed reduction in complexity of chemical compounds

• Results in a complete degradation (mineralization) of organic pollutants.

• Many factors influence microorganisms to use pollutants as substrates

-Temperature

-pH

-available nitrogen

-phosphorus sources,
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Figure 03: Role of microorganisms in biodegradation of pollutants

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Factors Affecting Microbial Degradation

Biological factor

●
Nutrients , oxygen , temperature , pH ,moisture.

Environmental factor

●
Soil type and soil organic matter content .

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Sewage Treatment/Waste Water Treatment
• Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from
municipal wastewater.
• Three steps of waste water treatment-

Primary treatment

Secondary treatment

Tertiary treatment

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 Pretreatment
• Removes all materials that can be easily collected from the raw sewage .

Figure 4: Bar screen

Figure 5: Grit chamber

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 Primary Treatment
•Temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface.

Figure 6: Primary settling tank schematic

Figure: Primary settling tank schematic

n et al.).

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 Secondary Treatment
• Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended
biological matter.

• Classified as -
●
Trickling filters
Fixed film ●
Constructed wetlands
system ●
Rotating biological contactors

Suspended ●
Activated sludge process
growth system

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Secondary Treatment

Figure 7: Rotating biological contactor

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 Secondary Treatment
• It is the process for treating sewage or industrial wastewaters using aeration and
a biological floc .

Figure 8: Schematic diagram of an activated sludge process.

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 Tertiary Treatment
• The purpose is to provide a final treatment stage to further improve the
effluent quality before it is discharged to the receiving environment.
Sand filtration.
Lagoons or ponds.

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 Biological Nutrient Removal
• Nitrogen is removed through the biological oxidation of nitrogen from
ammonia to nitrate (nitrification), followed by de-nitrification.

• In Phosphorus removal specific bacteria called polyphosphate-

accumulating organisms (PAOs) are used.

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 Biosorption
The ability of biological materials to accumulate heavy metals through
metabolically mediated or physico-chemical pathways of uptake.

Metal
biosorbents
Algae Fungi
Bacteria Yeast

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 Biosorption Mechanisms

Figure 9: Mechanisms of biosorption based on the cell's metabolism.

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 Biosorption Mechanisms

Figure 10: Mechanisms of biosorption based on location of where metal removed are found .
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 Biosorption Mechanisms
• Transport across cell membrane
Comprises of two steps-

Metabolism Metabolism dependent

independent binding intracellular uptake

• Physical adsorption
Van der Waals' forces
Electrostatic interactions
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 Biosorption Mechanisms
• Ion Exchange
Cell walls of microorganisms contain polysaccharides and bivalent
metal ions exchange with the counter ions of the polysaccharides.

• Complexation
Complex formation takes place on the cell surface after the interaction
between the metal and the active groups.

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 Biosorption Mechanisms
• Precipitation

Dependent on Microbes react in the

●

the cellular presence of a toxic metal

metabolism producing compounds

Not dependent on Chemical

●
interaction
the cellular between the metal and the
metabolism cell surface

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 Biofiltration
• New pollution control technology .
• Attractive technique for the elimination of malodorous gas emissions .
• Use for low concentration of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

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Biofiltration

Figure 11: Multi-layer biofilter

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 Biofiltration
• Biofilm surrounds the particles that make up the filter media.
• The contaminated gas is diffused in the biofilter and adsorbed
onto the biofilm.
• Microorganisms degrade the pollutants by oxidation .
Organic Pollutant + O2 CO2 + H2O + Heat + Biomass

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 Biosensors
• New analytical tools able to provide fast, reliable, and sensitive
measurements .
• Incorporating a biological material.
• Integrated within a physicochemical transducer or transducing
microsystem.

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 Environmental Applications

• Toxicity
• Biocides
• Hormones
• PCBs
• Phenols
• Surfactants
• Antibiotics
• Metals
• Inorganic phosphate
• Nitrate
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 Superbug

• A strain of bacteria .
• Resistant to antibiotic drugs.
• Difficult to control or eradicate .
• Immune to insecticides.

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 Causes of Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria
• Using or misusing antibiotics.
• Having poor infection prevention and control practices.
• Living or working in unsanitary conditions.
• Mishandling food.

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 Superbugs That Clean up Environment

• Polluted water bodies can be treated with GEMs.

• Nature performs its cleaning the environment by biodegradation.
• Superbugs could be a very promising option to perform this job.

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 In case of Bangladesh
• An excellent option to deal with the severely polluted environmental
sites.
• Our rivers and the largest sea beach could be saved in this way.
• We can get a cleaner and safer environment for fresh breathing and a
happy life.

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 Cleaning up Oil Spills

• Marine bacteria can assist in cleaning up after oil spills.

• Some microbes naturally break down petroleum.
• Several companies are working on oil-munching superbugs which
have been genetically altered to devour a spill more efficiently.

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 Molecular Ecology
• A field of evolutionary biology .
• Concerned with applying molecular population genetics, molecular
phylogenetic.
• This is done-
To look at the biodiversity of different populations .
To ensure they are not at risk of going extinct .

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 Future of Molecular Ecology

• Accessibility of markers for any organism.

• Fewer technical limitations .
• Faster laboratory analyses.
• Data storage and analysis more challenging.

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 Biotransformation
• The conversion of a small part of chemical molecules by means of
biological system.
• The living plant may be considered as a bio-synthetic laboratory.
• The secondary compounds are measure interest because of their different
functions and biological activities.
• Biotransformation is an area of biotechnology that has gained considerable
attention due to its ability of plant cell culture to catalyze the conversion of
readily available on expensive precursor into a more valuable final product.

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Cont.
• Plant biotechnology includes methods for tailoring plant resources,
plant cell and protoplast culture, manipulation of nuclear and plasmid
genes, plant cell and enzyme immobilization and industrial scale
production or biotransformation.
• Several reactions such as, oxidation, hydroxylation, reduction,
methylation, amino-acylation, glucosylation-a cylation occour.
• It can also be defined as-chemical transformation which is catalyzed
by micro-organism or their enzymes.

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 Types of Biotransformation
• Biotransformation is of two types
1. Enzymatic 2. Non-enzymatic.
• Enzymatic elimination is the biotransformation occurring due to various enzymes
present in the body.
Example:
a. Resolution of amino acid by aminoacylases,
b. Synthesis of aspartame by thermolysine.
• Enzymatic are further divided into
1. Microsomal : Microsomal biotransformation is caused by enzymes present
within the lipophilic membranes of smooth endoplasmic reticulum.

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 Types of Biotransformation
2. Non-microsomal: This involves the enzymes which are present within the
mitochondria.
Examples :
a. Skeletal muscle relaxans like Atracurium
b. Chlorazepate converted into Desmethyl diazepam
c. Mustin HCl converted into Ethyleneimonium
d. Atracurium converted into Laudanosine
e. Quartenary acid, Hexamine converted into Formaldehyde.

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Process of Biotransformation

Figure 12: Process of Biotransformation

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 Applications
There is biotransformation have many applications in various fields
Biotransformation of pesticides
Biotransformation of pollutants
Petroleum biotransformation
Biotransformation of drug
Biotransformation of steroid
Biotransformation of antibiotics

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 Bioplastics
• A type of plastics which are made of renewable biomass sources, example
vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, pea starchor microbiota etc.
• Bioplastic are (partly) biobased, biodegradable.
• Formulated with biological substances.
• Degenerated by bacteria or other (living) biological factors.
• Commonly used in disposable items including packaging materials, dining
utensils, food packaging, and insulation.

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 Types of Bioplastic
• Category 1: Polymers directly extracted/removed from biomass.
Example : Polysaccharides, proteins etc.
• Category 2: Polymers produced by classical synthesis using
renewable bio-based monomers.
Example: Poly acetic acid, a bio polyester polymerized from lactic acid
monomers.
• Category 3: Polymers produced by microorganisms or genetically
modified bacteria.

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 Advantages
• Bioplastic is cheaper than chemical method.
• This method is better than chemical reaction due to its substrate
specificity, steriospecificity and mixed reaction condition.
• The environmental pollution, due to bioplastic is negligible.
• It is easy to apply recombinant DNA technology make desire
improvement in microbes involve in biotransformation.
• It is easy to scale up the process due to limited no of reactions.

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 Application

Packaging Niche Food sevice

application Market ware
●
Bottles Minor Carrier bag
●
●
●
Films
automobile part
●
Clam shell ●
Electronic
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Mulch films
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Corton
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Loose fills
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CDs ans casing
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Cutlery
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 Biofuels
• A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological
processes, such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion.
• Biofuels can be directly derived from plants (i.e. Energy crops),or
indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial
wastes.

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 Biofuels

Figure 13: Types of biofuels and their sources

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 Uses of Biofuels
• Transportation
• Energy generation
• Bioheat
• Charging Electronics
• Clean Oil Spills and Grease
• Cooking
• Lubricate
• Remove paint and adhesive
• Create energy when fossil fuel runs out
• Reduce cost and need for imported oil
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 Conclusion
• The major benefits of environmental biotechnology are it helps to
keep our environment safe and clean for the use of the future
generations
• The applications of environmental biotechnology are becoming a
benefiting factor for the environment;
• New ways are improvised the environment and protect the
environment.

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