ABSTRACT
Environmental pollution becomes a key focus of concern during the recent times. The contamination of groundwater, surface water and air with hazardous and toxic chemicals is one of the major problems that the industrialized world faces today. One among many new technologies to deal with this major problem is bioremediation. Environmentally friendly processes need to be developed to clean up the environment without creating harmful waste products. Bioremediation is a process through which these problems of contamination could be solved by the use of microorganisms or microbial processes to degrade environmental contaminants. Cyanobacteria, one of the dominant groups of algae, inhabiting all kinds of water (effluents), recorded 42 species. It is a good candidate for tertiary treatment of urban, agricultural, industrial effluents and in turn, helps in solving eutrophication and metal toxicity problems in aquatic ecosystems. This paper is focused on the use of cyanobacteria in the treatment of effluent of oil industries by the help of exopolysaccharide covering of the cells which is considered as a biosurfactant.
