BIODEGRADATION

USING MICROBES

Dr.T.V.Poonguzhali
Department of Botany
Queen Marys College,Chennai-4

INTRODUCTION

Biodegradation is the process by which organic

substances are broken down by the enzymes produced
by living organisms.
The term is often used in relation to ecology,
waste management and environmental remediation (
bioremediation).
Organic material can be degraded aerobically, with oxygen
, or anaerobically, without oxygen.
A term related to biodegradation is biomineralisation, in
which organic matter is converted into minerals.
Biosurfactant, an extracellular surfactant secreted by

Biodegradable matter is generally organic material such

as plant and animal matter and other substances
originating from living organisms, or artificial materials
that are similar enough to plant and animal matter to be
put to use by microorganisms.
Some microorganisms have the astonishing, naturally
occurring, microbial catabolic diversity to degrade,
transform or accumulate a huge range of compounds
including hydrocarbons (e.g. oil),
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), pharmaceutical substances,
radionuclides and metals.
Major methodological breakthroughs in
microbial biodegradation have enabled detailed genomic,,
bioinformatic and other high-throughput analyses of
environmentally relevant microorganisms providing
unprecedented insights into key biodegradative pathways

Biodegradable waste in landfill degrades in the

absence of oxygen through the process of
anaerobic digestion. The byproducts of this
anaerobic biodegradation are biogas and lignin
and cellulose fibres which cannot be broken down
by anaerobes (anaerobic microbes)

Biogas contains methane which has

approximately 21 times the global warming
potential of carbon dioxide. In modern landfills
this biogas can be collected and used for
power generation.

Methods of measuring biodegradation

The activity of aerobic microbes can be
measured by the amount of oxygen they
consume or the amount of carbon dioxide they
produce.
Biodegradation can be measured by anaerobic
microbes and the amount of methane or alloy
that they may be able to produce.
Plastics
Biodegradable plastics made with plastarch
material (PSM), and polylactide (PLA) will
compost in an industrial compost facility.
There are other plastic materials that claim
biodegradability, but are more often (and possibly
more accurately) described as 'degradable' or oxidegradable; It is claimed that this process causes

The following table should be read with the above comments in mind, and
care should be taken before accepting claims of biodegradability in view of
the (dubious) claims being made.
Banana peel, 2 10 days
Orange peels, 1 month
Sugarcane Pulp Products, 1 - 2 months
Cotton rags, 1 5 months
Paper, 2 5 months
Rope, 3 14 months
Wool socks, 1 5 years
Cigarette filters, 1 12 years
Tetrapaks (plastic composite milk cartons), 5 years
Plastic bags, 10 20 years
Diapers 10 20 years
Leather shoes, 25 40 years
Nylon fabric, 30 40 years
Tin cans 50 - 100 years
Aluminum cans 200 - 500 years
Plastic Bottles 70 - 450 years
Plastic six-pack holder rings, 450 years
Styrofoam cup, non-biodegradeable
Biodegradable Plastic Bags, 75 days
Biodegradable Paper Cups, 75 days

 Bioremediation can be defined as any

process that uses microorganisms, fungi
, green plants or their enzymes to return
the natural environment altered by
contaminants to its original condition.
Bioremediation may be employed to
attack specific soil contaminants, such
as degradation of chlorinated
hydrocarbons by bacteria. An example of
a more general approach is the cleanup
of oil spills by the addition of nitrate
and/or sulfate fertilisers to facilitate the
decomposition of crude oil by
indigenous or exogenous bacteria.

The process of bioremediation can be monitored indirectly by measuring the

Oxidation Reduction Potential or redox in soil and groundwater, together with
pH, temperature, oxygen content, electron acceptor/donor concentrations,
and concentration of breakdown products (e.g. carbon dioxide). This table
shows the (decreasing) biological breakdown rate as function of the redox
potential.
This, by itself and at a single site, gives little information about the process of
remediation.
Process

Reaction

Redox
potential (Eh in
mV)

O2 + 4e + 4H+

aerobic:

2H2O

anaerobic:
denitrification
manganese
IV reduction
iron III

600 ~ 400

2NO3 + 10e +
12H+ N2 +
6H2O
MnO2 + 2e +
4H+ Mn2+ +
2H2O
Fe(OH)3 + e +
3H+ Fe2+ +

500 ~ 200

400 ~ 200

300 ~ 100

ADVANTAGES OF BIODEGRADATION

This technology is likely to be very important in remediating the

environment of toxic substances and reducing health risks for populations
that live around hazardous waste sites," according to NIEHS director Ken
Olden
Biodegradation is the molecular alteration of an organic compound by living
organisms. The final result of biodegradation of a hazardous substance is the
reduction of toxicity and human exposure to environmental contaminants
One problem with biodegradation is that, in some cases, it can increase
toxicity and exposure. In addition, studies have indicated that carcinogenic,
mutagenic, and teratogenic compounds may be incidentally created that are
highly detrimental to plants and other microbes

DAL LAKE

Adding oxygen to ground water contaminated by gasoline spills or leaking

underground storage tanks is a common approach for site remediation. Since
the late 1980s, it has been known that adding oxygen to contaminant plumes
promotes the aerobic biodegradation of petroleum contaminants such as
gasoline. On the other hand, the addition of oxygen to anoxic ground water
does not always result in increased aerobic biodegradation.

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