Abstract :
Arsenic is most commonly occurring toxic heavy metal in the environment and causes major risk to human health. It is often responsible for the contamination of soil and ground water which is widespread throughout the world. Depending upon the nature of carcinogenicity and toxicity of arsenic to human and animal health, remediation of arsenic-contaminated ground water has become a high priority. There are various physicochemical-based conventional technologies available for removal of arsenic from water. But these technologies are high cost and cause the production of toxic by-products. Therefore, research on new sustainable and cost-effective arsenic removal technologies for water has recently become an area of intense research activity. Bioremediation technology provides great potential for future application due to its environmental compatibility and possible cost-effective in removal of contamination of pollutants from natural environment. It depends on microbial activity to remove, mobilize arsenic from water. And various removal techniques like biosorption, biomethylation-demethylation and oxidation-reduction processes were also used for removing arsenic from water. This review mainly represents an overview on the contamination of arsenic in ground water and bioremediation of arsenic in contaminated ground water by using various biological methods.
Keyword :
Arsenic; Arsenate; Arsenite; Biosorption; Ground water contamination.