Environmental Biotechnology

Project Description

Soil pollution is an unavoidable evil; many crude-oil exploring communities have been identified to be the most ecologically impacted regions in the world due to hydrocarbon pollution and their concurrent health risks. Several clean-up technologies have been reported for the removal of hydrocarbons in polluted soils but most of them are either very expensive, require the integration of advance mechanization and/or cannot be implemented in small scale. However, ‘Bioremediation’ has been reported as an efficient, cost effective and environment friendly technology for clean-up of hydrocarbons polluted soils. Here, we suggest the implementation synergistic mechanism of bioremediation such as rhizosphere actions of plant and microorganisms which involves the exploitation of plant and microorganisms for effective and speedy remediation of hydrocarbons polluted soils.In this mechanism, plant’s action is synergized with the soil microorganisms through the root rhizospheres to promote soil remediation, the microorganisms benefit from the root metabolites (exudates) and the plant in turn benefits from the microbial recycling/solubilizing of mineral nutrients. Harnessing the abilities of plants and microorganisms is a potential headway for cost effective clean-up of hydrocarbons polluted sites; such technology could be very important in countries with great oil producing activities/records for many years but still developing.

Project Funding

Sr. No.Funding BodyFunds
1 TWAS 0.5 Million Rupee

Members

  • Dr. Rafiq  Ahmad