Biotechnology Environmental Consequences

Question: Discuss about theBiotechnologyfor Environmental Consequences. Answer: Tittle of the Grant Application Identification and application of the Biosurfactants for the use in the marine oil spill remediation. Background The oil releases can raise a noteworthy environmental consequences in the marine world and the marine environment gets highly effected by these oil pills. One of the early responses of the oil pills that chemical are dispersed in the marine environment. These chemical includes hydrocarbon and metals. However, the increasing awareness of the public regarding the environmental pollution have influence the discovery and development of the technologies which will be helpful for the clearance of the inorganic and organic compounds like metals and hydrocarbons. The Biosurfactants are one type of surface-active compounds produced by microorganisms. These are surface?active amphipathic molecules which have a wide structural diversity. These diversity endows these molecules with the unique properties they have. The properties of the biosurfactants includes higher selectivity, better environmental compatibility and biodegradability in comparison to other synthetic surfactants. As the marine mi croorganism goes through different physiological and metabolic adaptation due to their survival in the extreme habitat, the biosurfactants that are produced by marine bacteria have the ability to retain its activity in the extreme condition of the salinity, pH and temperature (Szulc et al. 2014 pp.121-128). The biosurfactants mainly belongs to a group of amphiphilic biomolecules which is structurally diverse. They have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties. In general the biosurfactants are grouped in the high and low molecular weight consisting molecules. The low molecular weight biosurfactants consist of lipopeptides and glycolipids and there are some other high molecular weight polymeric biosurfactants. As these biosurfactants have a high biodegradability and low toxicity they are very promising for their use as the alternative to the synthetic surfactant. Since the biosurfactants have the ability to facilitate the emulsification process of hydrocarbon in the aqueous phase an d thus enhanced the microbial uptake and subsequent degradation. However, there are very few marine microbial community present that are been explored and used for the production of the surface active molecules. To understand the biodegradation process in the deep water environment is very necessary as oil exploration and extraction is very fast in the water. This understanding will help to optimize response measure to be taken whenever a potential oil spill occurs using this bioremediation approaches. The microbial biosurfactants are less toxic than the chemical surfactants so these biosurfactants can be a replacement of the chemical surfactants in several types of applications (Nikolopoulou et al. 2013 pp.37-44). Aims of the Project To investigate the biosurfactants production efficiency and quality of the isolated consortia and the pure strains isolated from the water column of hydrocarbon- contaminated marine area with CO as the sole carbon source. To determine the isolation, screening, detection, and characterisation of the biosurfactant producing microorganism. Hypothesis The marine hydrocarbon degraders are mostly biosurfactant producers and this characteristic of these specific community of microorganism has insisted the researchers to investigate the efficiency of the biosurfactant production rates and quality of the marine hydrocarbon degraders. The biosurfactant production ability of the organism should also be investigated and there should be an evaluation of the composition of the biosurfactant that whether it is toxic or hazardous to the environment or not. The distribution rate of the biosurfactant that how fast they are able to disperse and the effectiveness of the biosurfactant in the degradation procedure of the oil hydrocarbons must also be evaluated. Methodology and Approach Sample Collection Six seawater samples were to be collected from six different location of the water bodies present in the industrial area mainly where there is a presence of oil refinery in the industrial area. As there is the presence of oil refinery there may be slow seepage of the oil from the storage tanks, so there may be a probable chance of presence of hydrocarbon degrading microorganism. The main aim of the sampling campaign is to isolate potential hydrocarbon degraders from the water sample. Preparation of the culture An enrichment culture is to be prepared by adding 10 ml of the water sample along with the respective media in an Erlenmeyer flasks. The media used for the isolation purpose is the polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-amended minimal liquid medium. Then the culture should be incubate in the incubator shaker at 20 degree centigrade at a rate of 150rpm. Screening of the organism For the screening and isolation of the pure biosurfactant producing strain the Drop Collapse Test was performed. Where the deionised water was taken as the negative control. For the Drop Collapse Test the organism is to be incubated at 14 degree centigrade. The Drop Collapse Test was to be performed once in every week before the re-inoculation. Community screening For the screening of the community of the organism PCR and pyrosequencing is to be performed. The total genomic DNA was extracted. The DNA yield and quality was to be determined by the agarose gel electrophoresis of 5 l of DNA extract. For PCR the primers are used to amplify the hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA. The 16s rRNA sequence of every organism will be different as it is the hypervariable region of the gene it varies from species to species. Characterisation of the strain The characterisation of the pure isolates around 200 l of each of the culture is to be centrifuged for 5 minutes at 10000g and after the collection of the PCR amplified product of the 16S rRNA , it was compared with the NCBI nr and 16s database using the software of BLAST algorithm to find out the closest described relative or more precisely species respectively. Biosurfactant production (cultivation, extraction, and purification) PAH-amended minimal liquid medium is used for the cultivation of the isolated strain. The extraction of the biosurfactant from the medium was performed by liquid-liquid extraction. For the purification of the produced crude extract of the biosurfactant Silica Gel Column Chromatography was to be conducted. Detection of the Biosurfactant The detection of the biosurfactant was done by performing the Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) of the crude extract on ac pre-coated silica gel. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy that is infrared spectroscopy as well as Mass Spectroscopy can also be used for the detection of the Biosurfactants. However, here TLC is chosen for the detection of the biosurfactant because among the detection technologies present it is the most cost effective technique. Significance, Innovation and National Benefit There are many different benefit present of the biosurfactants which possess huge significance in the innovation of the environmental conservation and the national benefit. The biosurfactant are effective in oil spill clean-up operation, bioremediation of the oil-contaminated environments and marine oil pollution, environmental application, bioremediation of the hydrocarbon contaminated sites. The advantages of the biosurfactants are as follows Microbes can easily degrade them. It has good digestibility and compatibility with the other living organism. The Toxicity it has is low. It possess capacity of emulsification. They are easily available and in large quantity as they are produced from the raw material which are very cheap. The property of them to maintain sustainability makes them ecologically accepted. Figure 1 Importance of the biosurfactant in different areas Source: (Anon, 2016) The national benefit exist in the matter that by the use of the Biosurfactants the government can avoid the issues related to the environmental pollution while using and producing the products of the oil refineries. Therefore the government should take initiative to promote this type project and the in recent decades it will be very beneficial for the governments in the domain of the petroleum business which gives highest sort of development of economy nowadays. So the government can deliver oil and oil associated product without raising any environmental issue so it will proved to be very beneficial for the government in using the oil refineries and oil products and also it will help the government to maintain an eco-friendly marine environment in the nation. Budget Budget SL.No. Amount Sub- total 1 Personal Cost of the chemical and instruments $60,500 Cost of the Man power used $32,425 Contigency fund $28,200 Total personnel Expenses $121,125 2 Direct expenses Expenses used interviews and other expenses $15,000 Total Direct Expenses $15,000 3 Travel Domestic travel $3,860 International travel $6,620 Total Travel Expenses $10,480 Total Expenses $146,605 Over head @ 10 % $14,661 Total Request of Grant $161,266 The major expenses in this project is the cost of the personal expenses it includes the cost of the chemical and the culture media to be used in this project. It also includes the cost of the instruments that are to be bought for different purpose of the project. The instrument involved in this project are the PCR thermocycler, pyro Sequencer, laminar air flow, Column chromatography apparatus, BOD incubator, Autoclave, and spectrophotometer. This part of the expenses also includes the cost of the man power used in this project and the contingency fund. The contingency fund includes the fund for miscellaneous expenses including whatever little things required to perform the experiment and take it through smoothly. The second most important expenses of this project is the expenses related to the direct expenses. The direct expenses includes the expenses required for the interview and all other recruitment and engage procedure required for the smooth running of the project. This direct expense also includes the expenses used for the travelling conveniences to the laboratory and other places. The third section of the expenses includes the travelling expenses. This travelling expenses includes the expenses of the domestic and international travelling required for the collection of the sample from different places and industrial sites. An overhead cost of 10 percent was incorporated for keeping some extra fund so that if any how the budget crosses in any of the domain of the expenses then it can be manipulated or managed with this overhead cost. Lay Summary of the Proposed Study The impact of the increase in the awareness of the peoples about the environmental pollution is that the researchers are impelled to investigate, search and develop different alternative technologies and techniques that can help in the cleaning of the inorganic and organic contaminants like the hydrocarbons and metal form the environment. The previous remediation technology includes utilization of the chemical biosurfactants. However, the chemical biosurfactants have toxic affect over the marine environment while removing the oil spills and hydrocarbon so the researcher have developed an alternative and eco-friendly method for the remediation techniques of the environments contaminated with the pollutant of the oil refineries which includes the use of the biosurfactant and the biosurfactant producing microorganisms. The diversity of the biosurfactants and biosurfactants producing organism makes them a very interesting groups of compound and microorganism to be used widely in the biot echnological and industrial applications. The purpose this experiment is incorporate more advances in the application of the biosurfactants and biosurfactant producing microorganism in the remediation technology of the hydrocarbon, metals and the pollutants of the oil refineries. Reference Szulc, A., Ambro?ewicz, D., Sydow, M., ?awniczak, ?., Piotrowska-Cyplik, A., Marecik, R. and Chrzanowski, ?., 2014. The influence of bioaugmentation and biosurfactant addition on bioremediation efficiency of diesel-oil contaminated soil: Feasibility during field studies. Journal of environmental management, 132, pp.121-128. Nikolopoulou, M., Pasadakis, N., Norf, H. and Kalogerakis, N., 2013. Enhanced ex situ bioremediation of crude oil contaminated beach sand by supplementation with nutrients and rhamnolipids. Marine pollution bulletin, 77(1), pp.37-44. Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.innovativepublication.com/admin/uploaded_files/IJMR_3(1)_5-10.pd [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].