ABSTRACT

Owing to the rapid growth of industrialization, urbanization, and modern agricultural practices, pollution of stream water or groundwater and soil is on the rise. The biggest challenge to researchers is the removal of contaminants. To fulfill the human desire for energy generation and other needs, natural resources have been exploited resulting in the degradation of water quality and environmental pollution leading to ecological imbalance. Pollution is defined as the presence of pollutants in the environment that causes instability, disorder, harm, and discomfort to the ecosystem, that is, physical systems or living organisms. Present treatment technologies, though efficient, cause several problems which make remediation processes complex. Among these technologies, bioremediation has been prominently practiced as an efficient cost-effective technology for controlling hazardous pollutants like heavy metals in soil and water. This chapter reviews the treatment technologies currently available for removing heavy metals and some of the nanotechnology applications in water treatment. A novel method of nano-bioremediation is effective and more significant for heavy metal removal in all aspects in which the drawbacks of bioremediation can be possibly avoided by the application of nanotechnology.28