A multifunctional hybrid material based on sepiolite for environmental recovery and bio-remediation is described. In particular, the invention describes the design and development of suitably functionalized hybrid nanomaterials starting from sepiolite and the subsequent study of the absorbent and degrading properties in relation to aromatic hydrocarbons, by activating hydrocarbon-clastic bacteria. These nanomaterials have been prepared in order to remove hydrocarbon pollutants (e.g. oil) in natural matrices (marine environment), with potential applications in the field of environmental remediation.

A multi-functional hybrid material based on natural clays for environmental bio-remediation and recover), is disclosed. In particular, the invention discloses the design and development of appropriately functionalized nanohybrid materials starting from nanostructured clays and the subsequent study of the absorbent properties in relation to hydrocarbons, heavy metals, chemical pollutants, oils, particulate, and microplastics. These nanomaterials were prepared in order to remove the hydrocarbon pollutants (for example oil) and metal pollutants in natural matrices (marine environment), with potential applications in the field of environmental remediation.

Snow, a vital component of climatic and ecological systems, serves as a transient and climatically sensitive ecosystem connecting the atmosphere to the underlying soil or ice. Within this environment, unique microbial communities thrive, actively participating in biogeochemical cycles despite challenges like low temperatures, variable UV radiation, limited water availability, and oligotrophic nutrient conditions. Mercury (Hg) emissions, originating from both anthropogenic and natural processes, undergo long-range transport with a 6-24 month atmospheric residence time. Upon deposition in remote regions like the Arctic, Hg can transform into methylmercury, posing risks of bioaccumulation and biomagnification in local food webs. Bioremediation stands out as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly approach to address mercury pollution. Hg-resistant bacteria, spanning gram-positive and gram-negative types, play a crucial role in countering and converting Hg from a toxic to a non-toxic form. The population of these bacteria correlates with the scale of Hg pollution at a site. The processes of bacterial resistance and eventual degradation rely on the presence of the mer operon [9]. Our work wase aimed to address further information on heavy metal contamination at the high north, contributing to the existing knowledge about the Arctic, and to isolate bacterial able to tollarate and degradate Hg for future bioremediation and biotechnological applications.

Industrial activities, pesticides, and improper waste disposal represent the main anthropogenic activities responsible for soil pollution. The Italian government in 1998 listed fourteen nationally relevant polluted sites in urgent need an environmental remediation [1]. Among these sites, the city of Taranto - located in southern Italy - and its nearby industrial area is included as highly polluted district. The presence of a very large steel industry, an oil refinery, a power plant, and a set of dockyards contributed altogether to the release of multiple and toxic pollutants in the environment. Although several studies were and are published focused on air and water pollution, few reports evaluated soil contamination of this area. Investigation on chemical and physical parameters (pH, electrical conductivity, available P, Organic C) and contaminant analyses of soil samples collected from a multi-contaminated area located close to Taranto were performed, [2] showing the presence of hazardous toxic pollutants, such as heavy metals (HMs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These pollutants are persisting and tend to bioaccumulate along the food-chain. Effective and sustainable decontamination methods are hence highly needed. Based on the synergistic action established between plant root system and soil rhizosphere microorganisms, Plant Assisted BioRemediation has been proved to be efficient in restoring quality of contaminated soils [2, 3]. In this work, the purple non-sulfur bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, a prokaryote able to convert sunlight into other forms of energy by photosynthesis, was used as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Due to its metabolic versatility and ability to grow in presence of heavy metals [4, 5], R. sphaeroides can be exploited for environmental applications, such as bioremediation of polluted sites. Here, the effect on the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana in PCBs and HMs-contaminated soil from Taranto area, inoculated with bacterial cells of the wild type 2.4.1 of R. sphaeroides was assessed. These preliminary results obtained in growth chamber in controlled conditions pose the foundation for the development of a more sustainable management system for soil bioremediation.

Aflatoxins (AFs) are toxic secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus spp. and are found in food and feed as contaminants worldwide. Due to climate change, AFs occurrence is expected to increase also in western Europe. Therefore, to ensure food and feed safety, it is mandatory to develop green technologies for AFs reduction in contaminated matrices. With this regard, enzymatic degradation is an effective and environmentally friendly approach under mild operational conditions and with minor impact on the food and feed matrix. In this work, Ery4 laccase, acetosyringone, ascorbic acid, and dehydroascorbic acid were investigated in vitro, then applied in artificially contaminated corn for AFB1 reduction. AFB1 (0.1 µg/mL) was completely removed in vitro and reduced by 26% in corn. Several degradation products were detected in vitro by UHPLC-HRMS and likely corresponded to AFQ1, epi-AFQ1, AFB1-diol, or AFB1dialehyde, AFB2a, and AFM1. Protein content was not altered by the enzymatic treatment, while slightly higher levels of lipid peroxidation and H2O2 were detected. Although further studies are needed to improve AFB1 reduction and reduce the impact of this treatment in corn, the results of this study are promising and suggest that Ery4 laccase can be effectively applied for the reduction in AFB1 in corn.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a non-steroideal estrogenic mycotoxin produced by Fusarium spp, such as F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. cerealis, and F. equiseti., and one of the most occurring mycotoxin in cereal-based products. Due to its structural similarity with 17-?-estradiol, its ingestion induces hormonal dysregulations, infertility, embryo toxicity, apoptosis, and oxidative stress in both humans and animals. Since mycotoxin prevention is difficult to obtain, their post-harvest reduction is necessary to ensure that safe food and feed are produced. Hence, different methods have been studied to reduce ZEN contamination in feed. Among them, the enzymatic remediation has proven to be an effective, yet mild approach, especially if green enzymes, like laccases (LCs), are used. Indeed LCs are versatile multicopper oxidases which require molecular oxygen as electron acceptor and produce to water as by-product. Therefore, in this work ZEN degradation was assessed in vitro using Ery4 laccase (5 U/mL) and four different mediators (10mM), two natural occurring phenols, i.e. acetosyringone (AS) and syringaldehyde (SA), and two synthetic compounds, 2-azino-di-[3-ethylbenzo-thiazolin-sulphonate] (ABTS) and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpyperidyloxil (TEMPO). The best performing mediator was then used for ZEN degradation in naturally contaminated corn flour (146 ± 12.8 ?g/kg). As requested by European regulation n. 786/2015 defining acceptability criteria on detoxification process, to assess whether the process adversely affected the characteristics and the nature of the matrix, a preliminary evaluation of the corn flour after the enzymatic treatment was performed. In particular, protein content and quality, as well as the oxidative status were investigated. ZEN was completely removed in vitro with all mediators tested after 72h of incubation at 25°C. Therefore, for a deeper investigation, a time course evaluation was performed using the natural compounds AS and SA. AS was the best performing mediator, as it enable to completely remove ZEN after only 30min. AS was then used together with Ery4 for ZEN reduction in corn flour, obtaining a reduction of 43.7 ± 8.5%. The protein content and the electrophoretic pattern of corn were not altered by the enzymatic treatment. On the contrary, a slight increase in lipid peroxidation and H2O2 content was observed, though still at physiological levels. The results of this work show that Ery4 and AS are efficient tools to reduce ZEN contamination in vitro and in a naturally contaminated matrix. A slight oxidation could be observed in the treated samples, nonetheless, the protein quantity and quality were not altered. Even though further studies are needed to comprehensively evaluate the effect of the enzymatic treatment on the nutritional and technological properties of corn flour, this study suggests that the enzymatic treatment minimally impacts the characteristic of the matrix and could be used to dramatically improve the safety of cereal-based products

SNOW BALL project, funded by InterACT, aimed at surveying Hg pollution level and the spread of Hg bacterial resistance in different environments (snow, river, and sea) and, in particular, to evaluate the contribution of Hg pollution made from snow in Arctic waters systems, to assess bacterial community activity in the snow, and to isolate biotechnological interesting bacterial strains in terms of bioremediation potentialities. Our preliminary results underline that the snow is an interesting and unique ecosystem, especially in terms of bacterial composition and activities.

Recently modern methodologies allowed the improvement of conventional bioventing strategies in an engineering technology known as smart passive bioventing (S-PBv). The latter is an increasingly used application to reduce the concentrations of organic contaminants below the relative value of contamination threshold concentration (CSC). The S-PBv exploits the natural fluctuations of atmospheric pressure, which allow air to enter into the subsoil, to facilitate natural remediation processes. In this way, the efforts in terms of economics resources in the remediation process are minimised, the risk of pollutants volatilization is drastically reduced, and the degradation favoured by microorganisms is promoted. Our study aims to provide the essential information to plan a series of in situ tests (pilot test) to verify the applicability of this remediation technology, through the use of intelligent sensors designed and engineered using open-source hardware and software.

Extreme environments host numerous microorganisms perfectly adapted to survive in such harsh conditions. In recent years, many bacteria isolated from these inhospitable environments have shown interesting biotechnological applications, including the bioremediation of polluted sites by hydrocarbons and heavy metals. In this work, we present Dietzia psychralcaliphila JI1D, a psychrophilic bacterium, isolated from Deception Island, Antarctica, which is able to resist high concentrations (up to 1000 ppm) of heavy metals and to favor their removal from polluted water systems. In detail, D. psychralcaliphila JI1D can actively promote the sequestration of arsenic, copper, and zinc from the medium up to a maximum of 31.6%, 49.4%, and 38.9%, respectively. Moreover, genome analysis allowed for the identification of heavy metal tolerance genes, thus shedding light on the mechanisms underlying the detoxification ability of the bacterium. Other than the demonstrated ability of D. psychralcaliphila JI1D to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, this study indicates the possibility of using this bacterium in the bioremediation of contaminated matrices, for example, those containing inorganic pollutants.

To carry out a suitable remediation process through biological technologies such as phytoremediation and landfarming its is necessary deeply characterize the initial sediment, if necessary, improve the physical and chemical sediment properties (e.g. mixing with gravel, compost etc.) to allow the survival and growth of selected plants and carry out periodical sampling campaigns to monitor the development of the processes and eventually make adjustments to the process (e.g. oxygen, water, nutrients and microorganism supply). At the end of the process, if the sediments do not comply with the reference legislation, they can be mixed with other substrates to reach the required properties (e.g. peat, sludge, coconut).

World population growth, with the consequent consumption of primary resources and production of waste, is progressively and seriously increasing the impact of anthropic activities on the environment and ecosystems. Environmental pollution deriving from anthropogenic activities is nowadays a serious problem that afflicts our planet and that cannot be neglected. In this regard, one of the most challenging tasks of the 21st century is to develop new eco-friendly, sustainable and economically-sound technologies to remediate the environment from pollutants. Nanotechnologies and new performing nanomaterials, thanks to their unique features, such as high surface area (surface/volume ratio), catalytic capacity, reactivity and easy functionalization to chemically modulate their properties, represent potential for the development of sustainable, advanced and innovative products/techniques for environmental (bio)remediation. This review discusses the most recent innovations of environmental recovery strategies of polluted areas based on different nanocomposites and nanohybrids with some examples of their use in combination with bioremediation techniques. In particular, attention is focused on eco-friendly and regenerable nano-solutions and their safe-by-design properties to support the latest research and innovation on sustainable strategies in the field of environmental (bio)remediation.

Microalgal-based remediation is an ecofriendly and cost-effective system for wastewater treatment. This study evaluated the capacity of microalgae in the remediation of wastewater from cleaning process of smoked cigarette butts (CB). At laboratory scale, six strains (one from the family Scenedesmaceae, two Chlamydomonas debaryana and three Chlorella sorokiniana) were exposed to different CB wastewater dilutions to identify toxicity levels reflected in the alteration of microalgal physiological status and to determine the optimal conditions for an effective removal of contaminants. CB wastewater could impact on microalgal chlorophyll and carotenoid production in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, the resistance and remediation capacity did not only depend on the microalgal strain, but also on the chemical characteristics of the organic pollutants. In detail, nicotine was the most resistant pollutant to removal by the microalgae tested and its low removal correlated with the inhibition of photosynthetic pigments affecting microalgal growth. Concerning the optimal conditions for an effective bioremediation, this study demonstrated that the Chlamydomonas strain named F2 showed the best removal capacity to organic pollutants at 5% CB wastewater (corresponding to 25 butts L or 5 g CB L) maintaining its growth and photosynthetic pigments at control levels.

Many soils contain a wide number of organic and inorganic chemicals and potential toxic elements due to industrial, agricultural and numerous anthropogenic activities. The recovery of polluted sites is an urgent need to be addressed and the development of innovative remediation technologies, which exploit nature-based solutions, is strongly encouraged, in line with the new EU Circular Economy Action Plan. Terrestrial microbial fuel cells (TMFCs) can be a valuable tool for recovering soils polluted by various organic and inorganic contaminants. TMFCs benefit from capabilities of microbial biofilms developed on the electrodes, which use the terminals as catalysts for metabolic activities, including contaminant degradation. This process produces energy, thanks to conversion of chemical bond energy (stored in the bonds of organic compounds) into electrical ones. This work describes construction materials, remediation capabilities and technology of the TMFCs, reporting the last advances in TMFCs such as soil-based reactors or in combination with plants (plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC)). Some aspects related to microbiological activities for pollutant biodegradation, plant-microbial interactions, energy production, and fields of application will be shown. Finally, abiotic factors which can improve bioremediation activities are also considered. Furthermore, limitations and issues for large-scale applications, as well as for stacking and scaling-up are discussed.

Towards chlorinated solvents, the effectiveness of the remediation strategy can be improved by combining a biological approach (e.g., anaerobic reductive dechlorination) with chemical/physical treatments (e.g., adsorption). A coupled adsorption and biodegradation (CAB) process for trichloroethylene (TCE) removal is proposed in a biofilm-biochar reactor (BBR) to assess whether biochar from pine wood (PWB) can support a dechlorinating biofilm by combining the TCE (100 µM) adsorption. The BBR operated for eight months in parallel with a biofilm reactor (BR)--no PWB (biological process alone), and with an abiotic biochar reactor (ABR)--no dechlorinating biofilm (only an adsorption mechanism). Two flow rates were investigated. Compared to the BR, which resulted in a TCE removal of 86.9 ± 11.9% and 78.73 ± 19.79%, the BBR demonstrated that PWB effectively adsorbs TCE and slows down the release of its intermediates. The elimination of TCE was quantitative, with 99.61 ± 0.79% and 99.87 ± 0.51% TCE removal. Interestingly, the biomarker of the reductive dechlorination process, Dehalococcoides mccartyi, was found in the BRR (9.2 × 105 16S rRNA gene copies/g), together with the specific genes tceA, bvcA, and vcrA (8.16 × 106, 1.28 × 105, and 8.01 × 103 gene copies/g, respectively). This study suggests the feasibility of biochar to support the reductive dechlorination of D. mccartyi, opening new frontiers for field-scale applications.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a landfarming process (LP) in recovering sediments at different biodegradation phases: phytoremediated dredged sediments (PDS) and fresh dredged sediments (FDS). The PDS landfarming was applied to (1) reduce residual contamination and (2) improve the biological activities in order to obtain a decontaminated matrix rich in organic matter and enzymatic activity to be reused as agronomic substrate. In 3 months of LP, a microbial activity stimulation (from 7 to 48%) and a decrease in organic contamination (about 15%) were recorded. In addition, no phytotoxicity and the content in total organic carbon and nitrogen make the sediments suitable to be reused in agriculture. The FDS landfarming was carried out to (1) reduce water content, (2) transform the organic matter into a more stable form, and (3) decrease organic contaminant level. Five months of LP led to a considerable reduction in water content (40%) and to the activation of microbial biomass metabolism (from 4 to 50 times higher), which achieved proper mineralization of organic matter and contaminants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons near to zero and a total petroleum hydrocarbon reduction of about 60%). The LP also enhanced the stoichiometric ratios of nutrients and enzymes. In conclusion, the LP was a promising and economical methodology to improve the physical, chemical, and biological properties of polluted sediments at different biodegradation phases, creating a substrate ready for several environmental applications. Notably, the PDS resulted appropriate for agricultural use and FDS for civil applications.

The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) is the main component of most commercial foaming agents (FAs) used in the excavation of highway and railway tunnels with Earth pressure balance-tunnel boring machines (EPB-TBMs). Several hundreds of millions of tons of spoil material, consisting of soil mixed with FAs, are produced worldwide, raising the issue of their handling and safe disposal. Reducing waste production and reusing by-products are the primary objectives of the "circular economy," and in this context, the biodegradation of SLES becomes a key question in reclaiming excavated soils, especially at construction sites where SLES degradation on the spot is not possible because of lack of space for temporary spoil material storage. The aim of the present work was to apply a bacterial consortium (BC) of SLES degraders to spoil material excavated with an EPB-TBM and coming from a real construction site. For this purpose, the BC capability to accelerate SLES degradation was tested. Preliminary BC growth, degradation tests, and ecotoxicological evaluations were performed on a selected FA. Subsequently, a bioaugmentation experiment was conducted; and the microbial abundance, viability, and SLES concentrations in spoil material were evaluated over the experimental time (0.5, 3, 6, 24, 48, and 144 h). Moreover, the corresponding aqueous elutriates were extracted from all the soil samples and analyzed for SLES concentration and ecotoxicological evaluations with the bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri. The preliminary experiments showed the BC capability to grow under 14 different concentrations of the FA. The maximum BC growth rates and degradation efficiency (100%) were achieved with initial SLES concentrations of 125, 250, and 500 mg/L. The subsequent bioaugmentation of the spoil material with BC significantly (sixfold) improved the degradation time of SLES (DT50 1 day) compared with natural attenuation (DT50 6 days). In line with this result, neither SLES residues nor toxicity was recorded in the soil extracts showing the spoil material as a by-product promptly usable. The bioaugmentation with BC can be a very useful for cleaning spoil material produced in underground construction where its temporary storage (for SLES natural biodegradation) is not possible.

The use of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as slow-release electron donors for environmental remediation represents a novel and appealing application that is attracting considerable attention in the scientific community. In this context, here, the fermentation pattern of different types of PHA-based materials has been investigated in batch and continuous-flow experiments. Along with commercially available materials, produced from axenic microbial cultures, PHA produced at pilot scale by mixed microbial cultures (MMC) using waste feedstock have been also tested. As a main finding, a rapid onset of volatile fatty acids (VFA) production was observed with a low-purity MMC-deriving material, consisting of microbial cells containing 56% (on weight basis) of intracellular PHA. Indeed, with this material a sustained, long-term production of organic acids (i.e., acetic, propionic, and butyric acids) was observed. In addition, the obtained yield of conversion into acids (up to 70% gVFA/gPHA) was higher than that obtained with the other tested materials, made of extracted and purified PHA. These results clearly suggest the possibility to directly use the PHA-rich cells deriving from the MMC production process, with no need of extraction and purification procedures, as a sustainable and effective carbon source bringing remarkable advantages from an economic and environmental point of view.

One of the challenges to implementing the modeling of the biological reductive dechlorination (RD) process is the evaluation of biological parameters that represent the abundance/activity levels of the microorganisms involved in the biodegradation of chloroethenes. Here we report a combined analysis of kinetic and specific biomass parameters conducted on three dechlorinating consortia enriched on PCE, TCE and cis-1,2-DCE. In these consortia, Dehalococcoides mccartyi (Dhc) represented >=70% of the bacterial population identified via 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Quantitative biomolecular methods were used to generate specific biomass parameters targeting either the Dhc population (16S rRNA genes or cells) or specific genes encoding RD process-involved reductive dehalogenases. The correlation factor between the abundance of active Dhc cells or tceA gene copies and maximum RD rates allowed to predict an increment of 7E+09 of active Dhc cells or 5E+09 tceA gene copies/L under controlled conditions. Diversely, the utilization of gene transcripts as biomass parameters for RD modeling did not provide reliable correlations with kinetic performances. This study provides valuable insights for further modeling of the RD process through the utilization of specific biomass parameters.

Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) are common groundwater contaminants due to their improper use in several industrial activities. Specialized microorganisms are able to perform the reductive dechlorination (RD) of high-chlorinated CAHs such as perchloroethylene (PCE), while the low-chlorinated ethenes such as vinyl chloride (VC) are more susceptible to oxidative mechanisms performed by aerobic dechlorinating microorganisms. Bioelectrochemical systems can be used as an effective strategy for the stimulation of both anaerobic and aerobic microbial dechlorination, i.e., a biocathode can be used as an electron donor to perform the RD, while a bioanode can provide the oxygen necessary for the aerobic dechlorination reaction. In this study, a sequential bioelectrochemical process constituted by two membrane-less microbial electrolysis cells connected in series has been, for the first time, operated with synthetic groundwater, also containing sulphate and nitrate, to simulate more realistic process conditions due to the possible establishment of competitive processes for the reducing power, with respect to previous research made with a PCE-contaminated mineral medium (with neither sulphate nor nitrate). The shift from mineral medium to synthetic groundwater showed the establishment of sulphate and nitrate reduction and caused the temporary decrease of the PCE removal efficiency from 100% to 85%. The analysis of the RD biomarkers (i.e., Dehalococcoides. mccartyi 16S rRNA and tceA, bvcA, vcrA genes) confirmed the decrement of reductive dechlorination performances after the introduction of the synthetic groundwater, also characterized by a lower ionic strength and nutrients content. On the other hand, the system self-adapted the flowing current to the increased demand for the sulphate and nitrate reduction, so that reducing power was not in defect for the RD, although RD coulombic efficiency was less.