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The Role of Microbes Toward Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons

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Book cover Microbial Action on Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Environment contamination by hydrocarbons (HC) has caused lots of implications and the use of HCs has been increasing over the years due to their several applications in different industries. HCs are compounds composed of hydrogen and carbon; it is described as an enormous contaminant with carcinogenic, mutagenic, and toxicity potential for the flora and fauna. HCs are very difficult to get rid of the environment as they are difficult to degrade. Accidental release of the petroleum products leads to the degradation of the environment. Oil spills in the ocean, crude oil-carrying pipeline leakages, production of by-products, and HC refining lead to environment pollution which is causing loss of biodiversity. The search for the natural methods for the degradation of HCs and their by-products has increased with the advancement of technologies as they are creating lots of environmental problems. In this book chapter, we have tried to sum up all the environment-friendly remediation methods for the removal of HCs such as phytoremediation, rhizoremediation, bioaugmentation, and bioremediation by enzymes, algae, bacteria, fungi, microbial consortium, and protozoans.

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Acknowledgment

G.K. is thankful to DST for Inspire Faculty award (IFA-12-CH-41) and PURSE grant II. R.K. is thankful to DST, SERB/F/8171/2015-16, as well as UGC (F. No. 194-2/2016 IC) for providing financial support. V.D. is thankful to UGC for JRF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Varsha Dogra & Rajeev Kumar

  2. Department of Bio and Nano Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana, India

    Sandeep Kumar

  3. Department of Chemistry and Centre of Advanced studies in Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Gurpreet Kaur

Authors
  1. Varsha Dogra
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  2. Rajeev Kumar
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  3. Sandeep Kumar
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  4. Gurpreet Kaur
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Correspondence to Gurpreet Kaur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Himalayan School of Biosciences, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Vivek Kumar

  2. Centre for Life Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Manoj Kumar

  3. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ram Prasad

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Dogra, V., Kumar, R., Kumar, S., Kaur, G. (2018). The Role of Microbes Toward Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons. In: Kumar, V., Kumar, M., Prasad, R. (eds) Microbial Action on Hydrocarbons. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1840-5_25

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