		Bioremediation (Use of microorganisms)
		Insitu
Bioventing	Soil	Supply of air and nutrients through wells to contaminated soil to stimulate the growth of indigenous bacteria	Used for simple hydrocarbons and can be used where the contamination is deep under the surface
Biosparging	Ground Water	Injection of air under pressure below the water table to increase groundwater oxygen concentrations and enhance the rate of biodegradation of contaminants by naturally occurring bacteria	Reduce ground water contaminants
Bioaugmentation		Microorganisms are imported to a contaminated site to enhance degradation process.	Recently, enzyme (Catechol 2, 3- dioxygenase) produced from three new strains of oil-degrading bacteria is being tested to cleanup oil leaks and spills
Biostimulation		modification of the environment to stimulate existing bacteria capable of bioremediation
Bioleaching		extraction of metals from their ores through the use of living organisms instead of using harmful chemical substances such as cyanide etc.,	Not leaching down nutrients
Biomining		Biomining is a technique of extracting metals from ores and other solid materials typically using Bacteria
MycoRemediation		Fungi used to decontaminate area
Mycofiltration	Water	Fungi Mycelia used to filter toxic waste and microorganisms from water in soil	Filters both toxic waste and microorganism
Electro-remediation	Soil	Using microbes to remove nitrates from soil	Trails conducted in South Korea in 2009 to treat nitrate rich soil
Electrokinetic bioremediation	Soil	Insitu treatment of soil pollutants such as Hydrophobic organic compounds	Denmark used in 2012 to degrade perchloroethylene which is a soil contaminant

		Exsitu
Land Farming	Soil	contaminated soil is excavated and spread over a prepared bed and periodically tilled until pollutants are degraded Exsitu	goal is to stimulate indigenous biodegradative microorganisms and facilitate their aerobic degradation of contaminants
Biopiles	Soil	Hybrid of land farming and composting Engineered cells are constructed as aerated composted piles	Treatment of surface contamination with petroleum products
Bioreactors	Solid/water	Processing of contaminated solid material (soil, sediment, sludge) or water through an engineered containment system	Exsitu
Composting		recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost.
		Phytoremediation (Use of plants)
Phytoextraction/phytoaccumulation	Soil	Plants accumulate contaminants into the roots and aboveground shoots or leaves.
Phytotransformation	Soil	Uptake of organic contaminants from soil, and their transformation to more stable, less toxic, less mobile form.	Organic contaminants -> Stable, Less toxic
Phytostabilization	Soil	Plants reduce the mobility and migration of contaminated soil. Leachable constituents are adsorbed and bound into the plant structure
Phytodegradation/Rhizodegradation	Soil	Degradation due to proteins and enzymes produced by plants and by soil organisms such as Yeast, Bacteria, Fungi	Breakdown/Degradation of contaminants in Rhizosphere
Rhizofiltration		Water remediation technique that involves the uptake of contaminants by plant roots	Used to reduce contamination in natural wetlands and estuary areas
		NOTE: Rhizodegradation and Rhizofiltration is a phytoremediation technique but not bioremediation as it involves plants

Bioprospecting

It is systematic search for and development of new sources of chemical compounds, genes, micro-organisms, macro-organisms, and other valuable products from nature
It entails the search for economically valuable genetic and biochemical resources from nature
Bioprospecting is used to develop commercially-valuable products for pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetic and other applications

Bio piracy

Using indigenous knowledge of nature for profit without permission
Karnataka issued guidelines related to this.
Biodiversity act 2002 has provisions that rights should belong to traditional dwellers

Bionic Leaf

“bionic leaf” t uses solar energy to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels
The bionic leaf 2.0 is placed in water and, as it absorbs solar energy, it's able to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
These can be harvested and used in fuel cells to generate electricity
Trail by Harvard university

Artificial Leaf

Developed by CSIR
Artificial leaf that absorbs sunlight to generate hydrogen fuel from water.
Artificial leaf is an ultra-thin wireless device that consists of semi-conductors and when visible light strikes the semi-conductors electrons move in single direction thus producing electric current which almost instantaneously splits water into hydrogen
The hydrogen produced can be used to power fuel cells which give energy and their only by-product is water.
A palm size artificial leaf can produce six litres of hydrogen fuel per hour thus making it extremely environment friendly

NOTE: Bionic leaf by Harvard university and Artificial leaf by CSIR. Bionic leaf has hydrogen eating bacteria while artificial leaf has electronic materials

Meisenheimer complex

It is a chemical compound synthesized through mixing two chemicals at room temperature.
Meisenheimer complex compound has been found to be highly effective in removing fluoride and metal ions such as lead, mercury, cadmium, copper, and iron from drinking water as it has negative and positive charged parts.
A polystyrene sponge when coated with the compound was able to absorb a wide variety of oils and organic solvents from water.

Funaria hygrometrica

It is a moss (mosses) known to grow well in sites contaminated with metals like copper, zinc, and lead, when in earliest stage of development.
It absorbed lead well at pH values between 3 and 9, which is important because the acidity of metal-polluted water
Scientists in Japan identified
Funaria - moss, hy - water, grow- growth, met - metals

Oleogelator

It is a simple and cheap organic compound that can effectively remove crude oil from seas
Oleogelator congeal oils selectively form a biphasic mixture of oil and water and form a 3D fibre network through hydrogen bonding
Thus the oil trapped in the Oleogelator form a rigid gel, turns the liquid oil into a solid one, which can be simply scooped out.
Oleo gel ator

OilZapper and Oilivorous-S

Using bioremediation techniques, TERI has developed a mixture of bacteria called ‘OilZa per and Oilivorous-S’ It degrades the pollutants of oil-contaminated sites, leaving behind no harmful residues. This technique is not only environment friendly, but also highly cost-effective. [NOTE: Only degrades to harmless but not remove/separates while Oleogelator separates and can be removed]
Both are in-situ
OilZapper

It is essentially a cocktail of five different bacterial strains that are immobilized and mixed with a carrier material (powdered orncob).
It feeds on hydrocarbon compounds present in crude oil and oily sludge and converts them into harmless CO2 and water.

Oilivorous-S

It is different from OilZapper
It has an additional bacterial strain that makes more effective against sludge and crude oil with high-Sulphur content
S- Sulphur content

Bioassay

Biological assessment
It is a test to know the impact/effect of physical/chemical/any other ecological disturbance on organism
Bioassays are common in pollution studies to determine the safe concentration of chemicals or Maximum applicable toxic concentration
Can be conducted on any organism but fish and insects are preferred
Organism is exposed to the different level of toxicants for different periods of time and the behavioral changes and other signals noted, assessed.
Static bioassay- exposed to same toxicant for a different period
Renewal bioassay - repeat of static at regular intervals
Flow through bioassay

Bioplastics

Plastics are usually made from petroleum, with the associated impacts in terms of fossil fuel depletion but also climate change
Bioplastics, on the other hand, are in principle climate neutral since they are based on renewable raw materials such as maize, wheat and sugarcane.

Remediation techniques