Microbial Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Water Resources

This project aims at developing new biotechnologies for remediation of pesticide-polluted soil and water resources. Bioaugmentation technology is the introduction of specific degradative micro-organisms to treat contaminated soil or water. In this project, new bioaugmentation technologies will be developed taking advantage of novel strategies for isolation of specific microorganisms with specialized degradation capabilities. Until now, research on contaminant degradation has focused on the role of bacteria, but in this project the potential of fungi will also be studied to explore the possibility of using fungal-bacterial consortia for bioaugmentation. To prevent predation by proto-zoa and to secure optimal conditions for degradation, selected strains or consortia will be immobi-lized on specifically designed carriers. The developed bioaugmentation technologies will be evalu-ated at the field-scale 1) for remediation of pesticide-polluted soil to prevent leaching of the com-pounds to underlying aquifers, 2) for treatment of pesticide-polluted drinking water in sand filters at waterworks and 3) in reactive barriers protecting drinking water wells by degrading pesticides be-fore they enter the waterworks.
The project will bring together a consortium of national and foreign research institutions, wa-terworks, private companies and environmental agencies, all of which will benefit from this new constellation. Moreover, new candidates within the field of environmental biotechnology will be educated. Two postdoctoral fellows and six PhD students will be financed directly by the project and several MSc students will also participate.