Bioremediation – the recent drift towards a sustainable environment

The release of untreated effluents into waterbodies poses a major threat to the environment and human health. The increasing ratio of demands to rate of supply due to the ever-growing population has resulted in the need for large-scale and efficient manufacturing. One of the pitfalls of the fast-paced industrialisation of textiles is the current negligence towards environmental safety and health concerns. Textile dyes, especially azo dyes, are one of the most toxic industrial pollutants. To date, many conventional treatment methods such as aeration lagoons, filtration, sedimentation, flocculation, and coagulation have been used for degradation. Nevertheless, modern techniques such as bioremediation, phytoremediation, and mycoremediation have been proven to be more efficient and feasible due to their eco-friendly nature. Bioremediation is the process of degradation of effluents using microbes. There are two bioremediation strategies: i.e., ex situ and in situ. In situ bioremediation involves the biological degradation of contaminants to benign products onsite. In the ex situ process, pollutants are removed from the contamination site, and then treated. Bioventing, biosparging, bioslurping, land farming, biopiles, and windrows are some techniques that have been in practice. Various microbiological, ecological, and geological factors affect the rate of bioremediation. To achieve accurate results, the maintenance of an optimal functional range is necessary. Technological advancements have led to new remediation techniques, i.e., nanobioremediation. This review includes insights on the impacts of azo dyes; the principles of bioremediation and its strategies, advantages, and limitations; and future prospects involving nanobioremediation.