SOLUTIONS THE INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT By Bilgen Yuncu, PhD, PE
Bioremediation offers solutions for plant site contamination Microorganisms break down and consume pollutants in contaminated media
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mong today’s top concerns for manufacturing plants, especially older and legacy sites, is their impact on the environment, particularly in terms of potential site contamination. Managing and minimizing site contamination risk is a top priority for plant owners and operators. Reducing and addressing potential contamination isn’t just the right thing to do, it also offers important economic benefits. Creating and implementing a robust contamination program ensures plants meet regulatory requirements and reduce the likelihood of costly fees and fines. Furthermore, remediating contamination at legacy or closed plants allows that land to be redeveloped or reused, resulting in the Figure 1: Manufacturing Facility, AR – Following the implementation of in situ bioremediation Trichloroethene (TCE) concentrations at different injection areas decreased and the groundwater plume shrunk significantly. Diagram courtesy: Draper Aden Assoc.
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• January/February 2021
PLANT ENGINEERING
potential for significant financial savings or an influx in revenue. As a result of technology advances and heightened focus on contamination at plant sites, manufacturers have access to a wide array of treatment plans to address areas affected by hazardous contaminants. One option that is highly effective yet often overlooked is bioremediation. Plant owners and operators would be wise to consider bioremediation strategies because they can produce highly efficient results at a comparatively low operational cost. Bioremediation can be used on a variety of contaminants, including chlorinated solvents, pharmaceutical compounds and petroleum hydrocarbons.
Bioremediation strategies
Bioremediation is the use of naturally occurring or genetically engineered microorganisms, most often microorganisms like bacteria or fungi, to consume and break down pollutants in contaminated media, including water (groundwater and surface water), soil and sediment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines bioremediation as “an engineered technology that modifies environmental conditions (physical, chemical, biochemical, or microbiological) to encourage microorganisms to destroy or detoxify organic and inorganic contaminants in the environment.” Bioremediation has been widely studied in the environmental biotechnology field over the past three decades and it has been shown that microorganisms in various environments can completely or partially transform pollutants into environmentally acceptable chemicals or alter their mobility (thus, contain them). As an example, bioremediation can be used to transform www.plantengineering.com
