Sustainable Bioremediation of Heavy Metals and Dyes Pollution
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2021) | Viewed by 2431
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Rapid industrial growth in recent decades has led to the generation of enormous quantities of wastewaters that are laden with toxic chemicals including heavy metals, dyes, organics and other pollutants, which have major adverse impacts on our water bodies, aquatic food-chain and health. Water is an indispensable resource on which all life depends, and the limited freshwater resources make it one of the most precious resources, which needs to be used and managed in a sustainable manner. The sixth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) formulated by the United Nations for 2030 is “Clean water and sanitation”. The conventional wastewater treatment methods, such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, ion exchange and electrolytic recovery, are energy-intensive and costly, besides producing toxic sludge. It is therefore necessary to look for wastewater treatments that are environmentally friendly and have a low carbon footprint. Bioremediation of various pollutants involving biological organisms has emerged as an eco-friendly wastewater treatment approach.
Dyes and heavy metals are two major groups of pollutants that contaminate the water bodies with discharge from various industries, such as the textile and dyeing industry, leather tanning, paper and pulp, electroplating, pharmaceutics, food processing and mining industries. Considering the enormous diversity and potential of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, cyanobacteria, yeasts, microalgae and microbial consortia to detoxify metals and dyes through different mechanisms, their exploitation as a potential treatment option in bioremediation is increasing. Insights into the mechanisms and strategies adopted by the microbes in bioremediation is of immense importance to develop and design the bio-treatment. Studies ranging from batch and column mode lab-scale studies to field-level bioremediation studies are required, along with a focus on economic feasibility analysis to make it a viable and sustainable treatment process.
Heavy metals, and sometimes dyes, also contaminate the soil, affecting plant growth and productivity. Plant-based phytoremediation, which may also be microbe-assisted, has been found to be a successful approach to decontaminate such polluted sites.
This Special Issue aims to discuss various aspects of the sustainable bioremediation of heavy metals and dye pollution.
The following themes would be of particular interest (note that this list is not exhaustive):
- Studies on various microbial systems for bioremediation of metals/dyes;
- Studies elucidating mechanisms of bioremediation of metals/dyes;
- Bioelectrochemical approaches (MFC, MEC) for bioremediation of metals/dyes and resource recovery;
- Ecotechnological approaches (constructed wetland) for dye/ heavy metal removal;
- Phytoremediation approaches;
- Hybrid systems for metal/dye bioremediation;
- Bio-nanotechnological studies for dye/metal removal;
- Pilot-scale studies on bioremediation with technical and economic feasibility analysis.
You are invited to contribute to this issue by submitting comprehensive reviews, case studies or research articles. Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer review procedure, with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.
Prof. Anubha Kaushik
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- heavy metals
- dyes
- decolorization
- degradation
- biotransformation
- biosorption
- desorption
