info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Microemulsions as a Novel Toolfor Enhancing the Bioremediation of Xenobiotics
Fecha
2019Registro en:
Sáez, Juliana María; Casillas García, Verena; Polti, Marta Alejandra; Benimeli, Claudia Susana; Microemulsions as a Novel Toolfor Enhancing the Bioremediation of Xenobiotics; Springer; 2019; 305-317
978-981-13-7462-3
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Sáez, Juliana María
Casillas García, Verena
Polti, Marta Alejandra
Benimeli, Claudia Susana
Resumen
Bioremediation is an advantageous and sustainable technology to remediate contaminated environments since it is cost-effective and environmentally safe.However, some pollutants such as most organochlorine pesticides and hydrocarbons are poorly soluble in water and thus tend to adhere tightly to soil particles. Therefore, the degradation of hydrophobic compounds is usually slow and frequently unsatisfactory due to the difficulties related to their transfer from soil particles to the aqueous phase, where these compounds are more available for degradative microorganisms. In this relation, a fundamental issue for the bioremediation processes is to overcome the limited accessibility of these hydrophobic pollutants for the microorganisms. As an alternative to synthetic surfactants, which are usually introduced into bioremediation processes with the aim of enhancing the bioavailability of hydrophobic pollutants, microemulsions have attained increasing significance both in basic research and environmental applications. Microemulsions consist of a combination of surfactants, co-surfactants, and oil phase and have demonstrated to be promising candidates due to its much higher solubilization capacity.