Age Of Bioclean

Microbes are increasingly being used to clean contaminated sites

- Aprajita Singh

THE OIL spill that contaminated Chennai’s beaches in January this year had an unusual ecological takeaway. The spill was cleaned up using a technique called bioremediation. The technique works by making use of the natural ability of certain microorganisms to break down toxic compounds using enzymes. Enzymes are molecules present in these microorganisms that do the job of breaking down pollutants into non-toxic compounds, essentially getting rid of them by eating them.

Possibly considered one of the most inert and harmless of environmental cleanup techniques due to its use of near-natural processes, various techniques of bioremediation have gained considerable attention both in academic circles as well as with the public in the past three decades.

How it works

In a study published in Nature on March 27, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison captured the process of one such enzyme attacking and breaking down toluene, an organic pollutant. Says Thomas Brunold, author of the study: “Broadly, these types of natural reactions are environment-friendly and cheap. In industry, researchers often perform challenging reactions with complex chemicals in harsh conditions, which can result in lots of waste and energy used. Investigating how enzymes, like the one we studied, catalyse their reactions can help us find more efficient ways to perform these challenging reactions.”

There are various methods of bioremediation. In Chennai, researchers from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) used the ex-situ (off site) method.