Bioremediation is the use of living organisms or ecological processes to deal with a given environmental problem. The most common use of bioremediation is the metabolic break-down or removal of toxic chemicals before or after they have been discharged into the environment. This process takes advantage of the fact that certain microorganisms can utilize toxic chemicals as metabolic substrates and render them into less toxic compounds. Bioremediation is a relatively new and actively developing technology. Increasingly, microorganisms and plants are being genetically engineered to aide in their ability to remove deleterious substances.

In general, bioremediation methodologies focus on one of two approaches. The first approach, bioaugmentation, aims to increase the abundance of certain species or groups of microorganisms that can metabolize toxic chemicals. Bioaugmentation involves the deliberate addition of strains or species of microorganisms that are effective at treating particular toxic chemicals, but are not indigenous to or...