Abstract

Environmental pollution has been on the rise in the past few decades owing to increased human activities on energy reservoirs, unsafe agricultural practices and rapid industrialization. Among the pollutants that are of environmental and public health concern due to their toxicities are petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, polyfuoroalkyl substances and pesticides. Remediation of polluted sites using microorganisms has proven effective and reliable due to its eco-friendly features. We reviewed two enhanced bioremediation approach for the cleanup of polluted sites. Biostimulation is the addition of nutrients and supplements such as vegetable oil, carbon and nitrogen to support microbial metabolic activities and growth while Bioaugmentation is the addition of exogenous microbial living cells with degradative capabilities. These strategies can be influenced by biological, biotic and environmental factors such as temperature, moisture content, and availability of nutrients and supplements. This review paper focuses on these two technologies and efforts are directed towards the process of bioremediation for the decontamination of environmental pollutants.