Microbial Biofilms – Pollutant Load Suppressor

With the industrial and agricultural revolution, addition of alien entities started on earth, which resulted in pollution. In the twenty-first century, global awareness started against pollution and since then the focus of many scientists shifted toward it. To date, extrinsic research and campaigns were conducted to ameliorate the effect of pollution. As a result, it was found that the native microbial population can immobilize and degrade organic and heavy metal pollutants. Due to the agricultural revolution, indiscriminate use of pesticides increased leading to pollution of air, soil, and water. Industrial wastewater treatment methods mediated by biofilms are extremely effective strategies because of their discrete advantages over traditional approaches. In packed bed reactors, solid supports (media) are closely packed where biofilms are colonized and offer good contact between the mass of the biofilm and the liquid. The use of membrane biofilm reactors (MBRs) to remove and/or recover pollutants from aqueous solutions has long been used as promising biotechnology. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) also can decontaminate wastewater and produce green energy. Degrading microplastic (MP) is also a challenging issue that can be achieved by biofilms. The incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and petroleum refining causes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination. Gamma proteobacteria species can effectively degrade organic pollutants. Bioattenuation is a natural transformation of pollutants using microbial flora whereas biostimulation includes the addition of electron acceptors or donors for enhancement of biodegradation. Biofilm-mediated degradation is found to be beneficial and hence intense research has to be carried out for a better understanding of interactions between the biofilms and the pollutant.