ABSTRACT
Increasing soil pollution problems resulting from industrialization and urbanization have caused worldwide concerns. This problem is extremely acute in areas where the presence of different families of organic pollutants is accompanied by heavy metals. The treatment of soils with mixed pollution is a complex issue because the remediation technologies are different for each class of pollutant. In this context, bioremediation is a low-cost technology, which simultaneously allows the degradation of organic compounds and the removal or stabilization of metals into non-toxic or less toxic forms.
Actinobacteria are a group of bacteria with a cosmopolitan distribution. They have demonstrated the ability to remove several organic and inorganic pollutants. However, its bioremediation efficacy depends on several factors and their interactions, including temperature, humidity, and initial contaminant concentrations. For a proper study, it is necessary to apply experimental design methods, which determine the effective factors and their interactions, as well as to model and optimize the whole system.
This chapter is focused on the evaluation of a factorial design as a tool to study the effect of environmental factors on a bioremediation process. Further, it is demonstrated how the efficiency of this bioprocess could be proved using Lactuca sativa as a bioindicator.
