Bioremediation of Wastewater Factors and Treatment

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.

The quantity and quality of waste generated and discharged into natural water bodies is a topic of serious concern. Consequently, there is a need for different strategies to address wastewater treatment and subsequent reuse, especially in arid and semi-arid areas where water shortages are the rule. Biological treatment processes constitute crucial tools in the biodegradation of organic matter, transformation of toxic compounds into harmless products, and nutrient removal in wastewater microbiology.

Edited by a professor of genetics and microbiology with extensive research, this compendium provides an overview of the most current research into many facets of wastewater bioremediation. The book is broken into three sections: microbial communities for wastewater treatment, environmental factors, and treatments. It provides discussions on biological treatment processes for different types of wastewater, such as municipal wastewater and wastewater from tanneries; how environmental factors such as season dynamics affect the diversity of bacteria; and applications and treatment.

The range of topics presented will be valuable for biological engineers and others involved with wastewater management. Researchers will find a wealth of studies that will prove fruitful for future investigation.

Introduction. Part I: Microbial Communities for Wastewater Treatment. Part II: Environmental Factors. Part III: Treatments. Index.

Olga Sánchez received her PhD degree in biological sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) in 1996. Her research began with the study of the physiology of photosynthetic bacteria and went on to the utilization of complex microbial biofilms in packed reactors for the treatment of contaminated effluents. In 2007 she became an aggregate teacher at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and presently, her investigation focuses on the application of molecular techniques for the characterization of the diversity of different natural microbial communities, including marine environments or wastewater treatment systems. These methodologies include clone libraries, FISH (Fluorescence In Situ hybridization), fingerprinting techniques such as DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis), and next-generation sequencing technologies.