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Biological Treatment of Hazardous Wastes edited by Prof. Gordon Lewandowski and Dr. Louis DeFilippi, is a comprehensive resource, on how to irreversibly destroy hazardous wastes found in all media (water, air, soils, sludge, dredged materials) by employing engineered microbial reactors and systems. Biological Treatment describes all of the basics required for understanding and applying biological treatment, and hydrogeological techniques, to real world situations.
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Message from the editor. "Biological Treatment of Hazardous Wastes" addresses much more than what the title might indicate. Even though Wiley lists it under "Earth Science" virtually its entire range encompasses areas outside of that realm. It is quite heavy on what is considered to be "Engineering". In addition to an introduction to chapters on applied and easy to understand aspects of microbiological degradation of aqueous wastes, there are fine chapters on reactor engineering, fixed film reactors, hydrogeologic factors, biofiltration, composting, anaerobic process, case studies, and bioremediation. Unlike most modern scientific books, the index is not simply computer generated but was developed through extensive expert key word search. There are numerous citations throughout the book, making it a first rate reference text. It should make a fine addition to the library of any environmental professional or a terrific source book for advanced seminars in the environmental field. -Louis DeFilippi, Ph.D.
Summary Biological treatment of hazardous wastes utilizes the ability of microorganisms in engineered or natural settings to transform virtually any organic compound, anthropogenic or naturally occurring, into an environmentally benign substance. This book offers balanced coverage of both fundamental principles and practical applications of biological treatment of hazardous waste, allowing readers to understand the often-complex factors involved in these processes.
Expanded Table of Contents and links 1. Suspended-Biomass and Fixed-Film Reactors (Piero M. Armenante). (more on Prof. Armenante here), (e-mail Prof. Armenante). 2. Introduction to Microbiological Degradation of Aqueous Waste and Its Application Using a Fixed-Film Reactor (Louis DeFilippi & F. Stephen Lupton). (e-mail Dr. Louis DeFilippi). 3. Bioslurry Reactors (Christos Christodoulatos &Agamemnon Koutsospyros. (more on Prof. Christodoulatos); (more on Prof. Koutsospyros). 4. Membrane Biofilm Reactors (Peter Wilderer, Frank R. Kolb & Matthias Kniebusch.). (more on Prof. Wilderer), (e-mail Prof. Wilderer) 5. Biofiltration of VOC Vapors (Basil C. Baltzis). (more on Prof. Baltzis). 6. Impact of Biokinetics and Population Dynamics on Engineering Analysis of Biodegradation of Hazardous Wastes (Basil C. Baltzis & Gordon A. Lewandowski). (more on Prof. Lewandowski), (e-mail Prof. Lewandowski). 7. Hydrogeologic Factors Affecting Biodegradation Processes (Kelton Barr). (more on Kelton Barr) (e-mail Dr. Barr). 8. Assessment of the Potential for Clogging and Its Mitigation During In-Situ Bioremediation (Peter R. Jaffé & Stewart W. Taylor). (more on Prof. Jaffé), (e-mail Prof. Jaffé). 9. Design Considerations for In-Situ Remediation of Organic Contaminants (Edward J. Bouwer, Neal D. Durant, Liza P. Wilson & Wei-xian Zhang). (more on Prof. Bouwer), (e-mail Prof. Bouwer); (more on Dr. Durant here); (more on Prof. Wei-xian Zhang). 10. Pentachlorophenol Biodegradation: Laboratory and Field Studies (Carol D. Litchfield & Madhu Rao). (more on Prof. Litchfield), 11. Natural Restoration of PCB-Contaminated Hudson River Sediments (Frank J. Mondello, Daniel Abramowicz & James R. Rhea). (more on Dr. Mondello here). 12. Microbes in the Muck: A Look into the Anaerobic World (David Kafkewitz & Monica Togna. (more on Prof. Kafkewitz); (more on Dr. Togna). 13. Composting (John A. Hogan). (More on Dr. Hogan here)
There is also an extensive index (a comprehensive and valuable tool for information retrieval: computer generated and then manually expanded and cross-referenced).
Independent review of: Biological Treatment of Hazardous Wastes Gordon A. Lewandowski and Louis J. DeFilippi, Editors, pp 401. Publisher:. Wiley – Interscience We live in safe times. The threats posed by the major killers of human populations such as cholera, pneumonia, tuberculosis and plague have largely disappeared from the developed world and their names no longer strike fear into the populace. Developments in sanitation, nutrition, and medicine have seen life expectancies increase decade after decade. However fear would seem to be a necessary requirement of the human condition, and the real threats of past fears have now been largely replaced by the less tangible threats of industrially generated pollutants. A modern prophesier of doom may well invoke a litany including dioxins, PCB’s, pesticides and perhaps even, oestrogen disrupting substances. However it is true to say that in the 150 years or so since the industrial revolution stimulated the demand for synthetic chemicals, the end products of chemical synthesis have generally been discharged untreated into the environment on the principle of dilute and disperse. And this is just what they have done, such that nowhere on earth can be considered a pristine, pollution-free environment. However the scale of this pollution is now recognised and fortunately its effects are rarely irreversible. The environmental challenge for the synthetic chemist and the chemical engineer is to provide affordable, engineered solutions to restore those environments which are most in need. It is generally accepted that the most cost-effective and sustainable approach to treating a waste is to employ a microbial option. Our greatest success in waste treatment has been in exploitation of the extremely catholic nutritional abilities of microorganisms, in particular the bacteria and fungi. Microorganisms are quite remarkable creatures and a testimony to what can be achieved by more than 3 billion years of evolution. Wherever we search on the surface of the planet, there are traces of bacterial colonisation. This includes some of the most hostile environments on earth, such as the polar permafrosts and the deep-sea ocean vents, where the temperature can be in excess of 100oC and the pressures are extreme. It is perhaps unsurprising therefore to find that microorganisms can transform virtually any organic compound, whether man-made or naturally occurring as the editors claim in the preface to this compilation of 13 articles, which attempt to provide both the microbiological and the engineering fundamentals of hazardous waste treatment. It is axiomatic however that microorganisms do not undertake such beneficial transformations without considerable encouragement or there would be no contaminated environments requiring treatment. There are a large number of different strategies summarised in this book for encouraging microorganisms to degrade specific compounds and there is a good coverage of the options for remediating aquatic environments. Of course many soils are contaminated with organic wastes and their clean up requires a different approach. Both in situ remediation, which considers the subsurface environment as a bioreactor, and ex situ alternatives, which require the design of an engineered reactor, are discussed. Perhaps surprisingly, one approach is through a carefully controlled composting process. I am sure that many gardeners will be delighted to learn that aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides and PCP can be removed through composting, although it is doubtful if the necessary highly aerobic conditions and temperatures in excess of 450C will be achieved on the average garden plot! The authors have achieved their stated aims of providing a combination of fundamental principles and practical applications, but with 12 of the thirteen chapters written by north American affiliates its contents are inevitably a little parochial. Each chapter is a self contained and scholarly account of one aspect of hazardous waste treatment. Thus within a single volume there are excellent summaries of: the chemical engineering aspects of suspended growth, fixed film and slurry reactors; microbial metabolism in aerobic and anaerobic environments; the influence of hydrogeological factors on microbial activity, and case-studies of decontamination of both aqueous and soil environments. There is much of value in this volume for Environmental Managers of industrial complexes. It illustrates what can be achieved and how it can be achieved; any text which demonstrates the applications of technology to site remediation in such a clear and concise way is to be welcomed.
Also, don't forget to visit our "Books of Interest" page, which has (or will eventually have) many books of interest to the Science and Engineering Community.
Some resources of interest on the subject of fixed-film reactors are: M. F. Carvalho, R. Ferreira Jorge, C. C. Pacheco, P. De Marco, I. S. Henriques, A. Correia and P. M. L. Castro "Long-term performance and microbial dynamics of an up-flow fixed bed reactor established for the biodegradation of fluorobenzene" Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Volume 71, Number 4 / July, 2006, pp 555-562This page is still under construction. Come back often to view updates and improvements.
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