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Journals
Processes
Special Issues
Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants
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Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2024) | Viewed by 6989

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Young-Cheol Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Course of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Division of Sustainable and Environmental Engineering, Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran 050-8585, Hokkaido, Japan
Interests: applied microorganisms; bioplastic production using biomass and toxic compounds; biodegradation of toxic compounds and bioplastics; bioremediation; health-functional substance production; medium-chain fatty acids’ production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The modern ecosystem is in critical condition due to the anthropogenic activity of environmental pollutant releases. In the environment, environmental pollutants include synthetic pesticides, herbicides, petroleum, textile wastewater, heavy metals, xenobiotic compounds, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, plastics, and industrial pollutants. The scientific community has developed many techniques to remediate toxic compounds from the environment. However, day by day, high amounts of toxic compounds are emerging. Microbial bioremediation of toxic compounds can reduce the risk of pollutants entering the environment. Biodegradation is a biological process that utilizes natural microbial populations to rapidly eliminate toxic compounds from soil and water streams. Thus, the contribution of microbes to cleaning the environment has been successfully determined. The microorganisms maintain a clean and green environment. Countless studies have been reported about toxic compound degradation using microorganisms. This Special Issue provides valuable information on technologies based upon the use of biological agents, including bacteria, fungi, and plants, for environmental cleanup. The combination of strategies helps efficiently remove pollutants generated from anthropogenic activities with minimal environmental impact. In addition, interest in the bioremediation of toxic compounds to find sustainable ways for environmental cleanup has increased in recent years. Advanced biodegradation technology will undoubtedly accelerate the development of bioremediation technologies for cleaning recalcitrants in the coming years and provide recent knowledge and approaches to the biodegradation of environmental pollutants. The expansive coverage of this Special Issue will give readers a wide range of options for developing biological treatment strategies for environmental pollutants.

This Special Issue, entitled “Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants”, aims to report recent advances in the development of biodegradation technology for environmental pollutants.

Prof. Dr. Young-Cheol Chang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioremediation
  • biodegradation
  • biosorption
  • xenobiotic compounds
  • heavy metals
  • enhanced microbiological treatment using genetic engineering
  • genomic, metagenomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic analyses
  • phytoremediation
  • bacterial community analysis
  • nanomaterial-assisted biodegradation

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 1501 KiB  
Article
In Vitro Removal of Cd and Pb Through the Bacterial Strain Burkholderia zhejiangensis CEIB S4-3: Efficiency and Cellular Mechanisms Implicated in the Process
by Alondra Abigail Hernández-Guerrero, María Luisa Castrejón-Godínez, Patricia Mussali-Galante, Efraín Tovar-Sánchez and Alexis Rodríguez
Processes 2025, 13(1), 276; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13010276 - 19 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1038
Abstract
Heavy metals are among the most toxic environmental pollutants. They are a group of chemical elements broadly distributed in different environments. Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, livestock farming, and mining release large amounts of waste that contain toxic heavy metals into the environment. [...] Read more.
Heavy metals are among the most toxic environmental pollutants. They are a group of chemical elements broadly distributed in different environments. Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, livestock farming, and mining release large amounts of waste that contain toxic heavy metals into the environment. Bacteria are organisms that present a wide diversity of cellular mechanisms that can be used to develop efficient, low-cost, easy-to-implement, and sustainable processes to remediate sites contaminated with heavy metals. In this study, the capacity of the strain Burkholderia zhejiangensis CEIB S4-3 to remove Cd, Pb, and the mixture of both metals was evaluated through in vitro experiments. B. zhejiangensis CEIB S4-3 can eliminate on average 90% of Cd+2 and 91% of Pb+2 present in the study system (50 mg/L), while in the presence of the mixture of both heavy metals, the bacterial strain, the removal of Cd and Pb was 59 and 75%, respectively. The main cellular mechanism for removing Cd was extracellular biosorption, while, in the case of Pb, it was intracellular bioaccumulation. Heavy metals from the mixture of Cd and Pb were removed through extracellular absorption. In addition, the analysis of the genome of the bacterial strain revealed the presence of genes related to resistance to heavy metals, such as genes implicated in sensing and transcriptional response to heavy metals exposure and heavy metals efflux systems as the most important. The data obtained in this work can be the basis for developing new systems to remove Cd and Pb using B. zhejiangensis CEIB S4-3. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants)
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20 pages, 2434 KiB  
Article
Ibuprofen Formulations: Permeability and Biodegradability Comparison Depending on the Type of Formulation
by Edyta Kucharska, Berin Ok, Anna Nowak, Łukasz Kucharski, Anna Muzykiewicz-Szymańska and Paula Ossowicz-Rupniewska
Processes 2024, 12(6), 1236; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12061236 - 16 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1958
Abstract
This study assesses ibuprofen’s permeability to different formulations and their biodegradation. Hydrogel, organogel, Eucerin ointment, silicone ointment, and zinc ointment were investigated. The objective was to comprehensively evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and environmental implications of these formulations. Diverse formulations were examined through the [...] Read more.
This study assesses ibuprofen’s permeability to different formulations and their biodegradation. Hydrogel, organogel, Eucerin ointment, silicone ointment, and zinc ointment were investigated. The objective was to comprehensively evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and environmental implications of these formulations. Diverse formulations were examined through the utilisation of Franz diffusion chambers to evaluate the in vitro permeability of both ibuprofen and ibuprofenate sodium. Moreover, biodegradation studies of the obtained formulations were carried out with activated sludge. The activity of the inoculum was confirmed by using SDS as a reference compound. The experimental settings used (carbon content and inoculum volume) were selected based on the criteria set by the OECD guidelines. Relevant parameters pertaining to the biodegradation process were estimated, including biodegradation values (%B) at specific time points, half-lives of initial compounds and API-containing formulations, and degradation phases (lag phase I; degradation phase II, and plate phase III). For comparison purposes, biodegradation studies were also carried out for the initial IBU and IBUNa compounds under the same conditions. The environmental implications of these findings underscore the need for a balanced consideration of therapeutic efficacy and environmental sustainability in pharmaceutical formulation design. This study provides valuable insights for pharmaceutical researchers, environmental scientists, and regulatory bodies involved in the development and assessment of drug formulations. The proposed method of removing NSAIDs from aquatic ecosystems is a cheaper alternative to techniques such as reverse osmosis, oxidation, UV degradation, or photolysis, which have not found practical use owing to the generation of toxic sludge or high capital and operating costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants)
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Review

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43 pages, 1332 KiB  
Review
Bioremediation of Smog: Current Trends and Future Perspectives
by Isha, Shakir Ali, Ammara Khalid, Ifrah Amjad Naseer, Hassan Raza and Young-Cheol Chang
Processes 2024, 12(10), 2266; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12102266 - 17 Oct 2024
Viewed by 3350
Abstract
Air pollution has become one of the biggest problems throughout the world. Smog has a severe effect on the pulmonary and circulatory systems, which causes a significant number of deaths globally. Therefore, the remediation of air pollutants to maintain ecosystem processes and functions [...] Read more.
Air pollution has become one of the biggest problems throughout the world. Smog has a severe effect on the pulmonary and circulatory systems, which causes a significant number of deaths globally. Therefore, the remediation of air pollutants to maintain ecosystem processes and functions and to improve human health is a crucial problem confronting mankind today. This review aims to discuss the health effects of smog on humans. This review will also focus on the bioremediation of air pollution (smog) using bacteria, fungi, phytoremediation, nanotechnology, and phylloremediation (using plants and microbes). Phylloremediation is the most effective technology for removing air pollution naturally. The future perspective presents a great need to produce an ecosystem where microbes, plants, and nanoparticles synergistically control smog. In addition, further advancements would be needed to modify the genetic makeup of microbes and plants. Biotechnological approaches like CRISPR-Cas9 can be applied to the editing and cutting of specific genes responsible for the bioremediation of VOCs, NOx, SOx, and harmful hydrocarbons. The extracted genes can then be expressed in biologically modified microorganisms and plants for the enhanced bioremediation of smog. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodegradation Technologies for Environmental Pollutants)
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