Miresowa
MICROBIAL REMEDIATION OF CONTAMINATED SOIL AND WATER RESOURCES
Group photo, general assembly, GEUS, April 21, 2009 This bioremediation project will result in much needed new technologies for remediating pesticide-contaminated soil and groundwater. The project will thereby help solve one of the main problems facing the Danish water supply. Moreover, the project will considerably enhance Danish know-how about bioremediation and will educate two post-docs, six PhDs and several MSc students in environmental biotechnology. The project will also host a Belgian PhD for a period of one year.
In the present context, bioaugmentation is the introduction of specific degrading microorganisms into a contaminated environment. The project will develop new bioaugmentation technologies by taking advantage of novel strategies for isolating specific microorganisms with specialised degradation capabilities. Research on contaminant degradation by microorganisms has hitherto focused on bacteria.
This project will also examine the degradation potential of fungi and explore the possibility of using fungal-bacterial consortia for bioaugmentation. To prevent predation on the degrading microorganisms by protozoa and to ensure optimal conditions for degradation, selected strains or consortia will be immobilised on specifically designed carriers.
The new bioaugmentation technologies will then be evaluated at field scale to test their practicality for
- remediating pesticide-contaminated soil to prevent leaching of contaminants to underlying aquifers,
- treating pesticide-contaminated water in sand filters at waterworks and
- establishing reactive barriers within water wells to remediate contaminated groundwater before abstraction.
The project brings together a consortium of national and foreign research institutions, waterworks, companies and environmental agencies, all of which will benefit from the collaboration. MIRESOWA started 1 January 2009 and will run for five years. It has 16 partners.
|
