Heavy metal contamination of the ecosystem remains one of the severe global threats. Even in trace quantities, heavy metals and metalloids such as chromium, lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel, and cobalt are toxic and carcinogenic, posing a serious threat to human life. Certain microbes and plants have evolved detoxifying pathways to fight the harmful effects of these inorganic metals, paving the door for bioremediation. Because of its environmentally benign nature, economic viability, and low labor and effort requirements, bioremediation outperforms other approaches in eliminating heavy metals. This review highlights the potential of microbes on remediation of heavy metals in the context of environmental protection and also focuses on the critical tolerance mechanisms used by these microbes in combating heavy metal contaminations. Furthermore, the bioremediation potential of bacteria, fungus, algae, plants, biosurfactants, biofilms and genetically altered microorganisms for the removal of these heavy metals was reviewed in this study. Applying these techniques as a sustainable environmental technology in the near future has shown synergistic benefits with a many-fold increase in the removal of heavy metals.
Over 100 tons of dyes are released per year into the wastewaters without
prior treatment which adds to the contamination of freshwater resources globally. Thus,
the development of economical, and sustainable control measures to avoid the pollution
of natural resources remains imperative. In the present scenario, recent advancements
in biological approaches have escalated bioremediation as a potential strategy for
treatment of dyes and associated derivatives. These biological approaches utilize
simple to complex microorganisms, plants, and wastes generated from different animal
products as tools to remediate and remove dye molecules from wastewater. This
particular chapter targets to address the recent advancements in the past three to four
years in the sustainable treatment of dye molecules from wastewater using
bioremediation approaches. The study also includes the prevailing hurdles, and
research prospects in the bioremediation techniques utilized for the reduction of dyes
from wastewater.
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