Role of Microorganisms in Bioremediation

Bioremediation involves the use of natural microorganisms for the purpose ofdegrading numerous types of industrial and environmental waste. Microorganismsrequire carbon, nutrients, and energy to live and multiply as all living organisms do. Inorder to obtain energy, such microorganisms break down organic pollutants into simplerorganic compounds like carbon, salts, water, and similar harmless products. Thisapproach of degrading contaminants using microorganisms has proved much beneficialand has been proven to be cost-effective and efficient. There are a lot of naturally occurringmicroorganisms that have been reported essential in the degradation of organic pollutants.Different industries use different types of bioremediation methods. Specificenvironmental conditions may be required for optimal functioning of microbes e.g., pH,temperature, humidity, etc. Bioremediation has been proven as an environment-friendlyand cost-effective approach to deal with industrial contaminants. Descriptive informationof microbes involved in bioremediation has been explained in this review.

Genomics reveals the novel species placement of industrial contaminant isolates incorrectly identified as Burkholderia lata

The Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is a closely related group of bacteria, composed of at least 20 different species, the accurate identification of which is essential in the context of infectious diseases. In industry, they can contaminate non-food products, including home and personal care products and cosmetics. The Bcc are problematic contaminants due to their ubiquitous presence and intrinsic antimicrobial resistance, which enables them to occasionally overcome preservation systems in non-sterile products. Burkholderia lata and Burkholderia contaminans are amongst the Bcc bacteria encountered most frequently as industrial contaminants, but their identification is not straightforward. Both species were historically established as a part of a group known collectively as taxon K, based upon analysis of the recA gene and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Here, we deploy a straightforward genomics-based workflow for accurate Bcc classification using average nucleotide identity (ANI) and core-gene analysis. The workflow was used to examine a panel of 23 Burkholderia taxon K industrial strains, which, based on MLST, comprised 13 B. lata, 4 B. contaminans and 6 unclassified Bcc strains. Our genomic identification showed that the B. contaminans strains retained their classification, whilst the remaining strains were reclassified as Burkholderia aenigmatica sp. nov. Incorrect taxonomic identification of industrial contaminants is a problematic issue. Application and testing of our genomic workflow allowed the correct classification of 23 Bcc industrial strains, and also indicated that B. aenigmatica sp. nov. may have greater importance than B. lata as a contaminant species. Our study illustrates how the non-food manufacturing industry can harness whole-genome sequencing to better understand antimicrobial-resistant bacteria affecting their products.

Methodology for the Study of the Air Dispersion of the Industrial Contaminants Taking into Account the Orography

Air pollution is one of the consequences of the industrial development, which causes a lot of health and environmental problems. For these reasons, the quality of the air is one of the major concerns of regional, national and European governments. All of them are developing strict normative to reduce the emissions of contaminants. The quality of the air can be analysed by means of numerical simulations. In this paper, a methodology based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is described. This technique allows evaluating the dispersion of industrial-type air pollutants in a relatively large area, taking into account the orography, buildings and so on. Also, specific models are studied in order to consider the specific characteristics of the industrial contaminants and particles.