Nanobioremediation

A clean-up technique for the remediation of pollutants through biosynthetic nanoparticles. It can transform and detoxify pollutants by capturing metal ions and turning them into elementary compounds through enzymes generated by cells.
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Technology Life Cycle

Technology Life Cycle

R&D

Initial phase where new technologies are conceptualized and developed. During this stage, technical viability is explored and initial prototypes may be created.

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Prototype Testing

Prototype is fully functional and ready for testing in industrially relevant environment.

Technology Diffusion

Technology Diffusion

Early Adopters

Embrace new technologies soon after Innovators. They often have significant influence within their social circles and help validate the practicality of innovations.

Nanobioremediation

Nanobioremediation is a cost-effective technique of utilizing plants and microbes for the breakdown of pollutant compounds and heavy metals from the environment. By breaking down contaminants in the ecosystems, the process may be able to eradicate, retain, or reduce the amount of pollutants present. It is able to biosynthesize nanoparticles by capturing metal ions and turning them into elementary compounds through enzymes generated by cells. It reduces the toxicity in microorganisms while improving the microbial activity of the specific waste and toxic material.

Combining nanomaterials and bioremediation, nanobioremediation increases the surface area per unit mass of a material. It allows for a more considerable amount of the material to come into contact with surrounding materials, affecting its reactivity. Nanomaterials also show a quantum effect, requiring less activation energy to make chemical reactions feasible. As far as shape and size are concerned, various metallic and nonmetallic nanomaterials of different shapes and measures can be used for environmental clean-up.

Besides water treatment applications, nanobioremediation techniques involving bio-ozolytes could clean up the slurry, run-off from agriculture or treatment and remediation of soil pollutants such as pesticides, animal waste, or oil spillage. Furthermore, agricultural waste could be harvested and transformed directly into feedstock for agriculture. At the same time, nitrogen and phosphorus can be captured and used as fertilizers for crop growth, thus acting as a more environmentally sustainable closed-loop system.

Nanobioremediation could be deployed where other conventional remediation treatments do not prove to be helpful because nanoparticles are less toxic and enhance microbial activity. Although various research efforts have been conducted on the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles, more information is required about the complex interaction and adsorption with the contaminated area.

Future Perspectives

Future research in nanobioremediation should focus on the combined use of nanoparticles, genetically modified microbes, and plants to design eco-friendly, cost-effective, robust, and sustainable remediation strategies. Also, apart from reducing the overall cost and requiring less time and energy, surface resonance could be used to detect toxic material before treatment, optimizing resource management. By lowering and regenerating chemical and biological sludge, being selective to specific metals, and recovering them without requiring additional nutrients, the benefits of nanobioremediation over conventional treatments promise to manifest themselves as both economically and environmentally sustainable.

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Innovation is at the centre of the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade (EU2020). New technologies and their adoption by EU farmers are essential in maintaining European agriculture competitive in a global world. Nanotechnology represents an innovativetechnology in many areas of applications and is showing a great potential in the agricultural sector, in particular for the development of more precise and effective methods for disease diagnosis and treatment in crop plant
Part of the series Environmental Science and Engineering pp 13-33
The article focuses a family of nano-scale catalysts being developed to address wastewater from the oil and gas industries. Researchers are working with a US federally funded organization, Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), to develop off-grid emergency drinking water applications and industrial wastewater use in remote sites. The researchers, universities and NEWT are working together with the oil and gas industries to develop advanced materials with the ultimate objective of creating modular water treatment systems at all scales.
Nanotechnology is a fast-evolving discipline that already produces outstanding basic knowledge and industrial applications for the benefit of society. Whereas the first applications of nanotechnology have been developed mainly in material sciences, applications in the agriculture and food sectors are still emerging. Due to a rapid population growth there is a need to produce food and beverages in a more efficient, safe and sustainable way. Here, nanotechnology is a promising way to improve crop production, water quality, nutrition, packaging, and food security. There are actually few comprehensive reviews and clear textbooks on nanotechnology in agriculture, water, and food. In this book there are 10 chapters describing the synthesis and application of nanomaterials for health, food, and agriculture are presented.Nanomaterials with unique properties will dramatically improve agriculture and food production. Applications will include nanofertilisers to enhance plant growth and nanosensors to detect food contamination. An overall view of nanotechnology applications in agriculture, food, water, and environment are described in the first two chapters by Dasgupta et al. and Singh. Health and environmental applications of nanotechnology are presented in chapters 3-5. Shukla and Iravani review green methods to synthesize metal nanoparticles, and give applications to water purification, in chapter 3. The removal of up to 95% of contaminants by nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanostructured membranes is described by Naghdi et al. in chapter 4. Yoti et al. then review nanosensors for the detection of pathogenic bacteria in chapter 5. Those nanosensors can be used as biodiagnostics to control food and water quality. Food applications of nanoscience are presented in chapters 6 and 7 by Kuswandi and Sarkhar et al. Kuswandi explain in chapter 6 that nanomaterials can improve packaging quality and that nanosensors can detect freshness and contanimants. The use of nanoparticles to protect ingredients such as vitamins, flavours, and antimicrobials is reviewed by Sarkhar et al. in chapter 7.
Global environmental issues have emerged owing to rapid industrialization and urbanization. Ecological imbalance and pollution have raised serious concerns and, thus, led to adoption of better anthropogenic practices and environmental cleanup technologies including physical, chemical, and biological methods. Current treatment practices, although efficient, have made remediation processes complex. Among existing technologies, bioremediation and biotransformation are prominently being used for heavy metal remediation of soil and water, whereas biodegradation is used for toxic pollutants like polyaromatic insecticides, pesticides, plasticizers, and petroleum hydrocarbons. This chapter overviews nanotechnology-based alternative treatment strategies for efficient and sustainable bioremediation and biodegradation. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of current technologies as well as comments on the future directions in this field.
Soil and water contamination through heavy metals, hydrocarbons and radioactive wastes is of global concern as these factors have cumulative effect on the environment and human health. Removal of...
1Center for Nanosciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar 382 030, India2School of Chemical Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar 382 030, India3Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500 046, India4Center for Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar 382 030, India
Researchers from MIT and the Federal University of Goiás have demonstrated a new method for using nanoparticles and ultraviolet light to quickly isolate and extract toxic contaminants from soil and water.
The rapid progression of technology has significantly impacted population growth, urbanization, and industrialization in modern society. These developments, while positive on the surface, have created critical environmental problems in recent years. Biostimulation Remediation Technologies for Groundwater Contaminants is a critical scholarly publication that examines the release of heavy metals into the environment as a result of human activities and the use of nanoparticles and other technologies to manage and treat the effects of the pollution. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as toxicity of heavy metals, bioremediation, and acclimated bacterial strains, this book is geared toward environmentalists, engineers, academics, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking current research on bioremediation as an alternate way to manage or degrade heavy metal waste.
The issue of environmental pollution has become a hot issue in today's world. Environmental pollution, mainly caused by toxic chemicals, includes air, water, and soil pollution. This pollution results not only in the destruction of biodiversity, but also the degradation of human health. Pollution levels that are increasing day by day need better developments or technological discoveries immediately. Nanotechnology offers many advantages to improve existing environmental technologies and create new technology that is better than current technology. In this sense, nanotechnology has three main capabilities that can be applied in the fields of environment, including the cleanup (remediation) and purification, the detection of contaminants (sensing and detection), and the pollution prevention.

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