Biotecnología aplicada a la degradación de colorantes de la industria textil.

The presence of dyes in wastewater represents an environmental problem as this type of compoundscannot be eliminated through conventional methods of treatment. Biotechnology o?ers an alternative treatment, asmost of the treatment systems based on chemical or physical methods are expensive and consume a great amountof energy and chemicals. This study mentions some conventional technologies together with a review of reports inwhich dyes have been degraded through biological methods. One of the advantages of this type of technologies isthat a complete mineralisation of the dye can be achieved, apart from decolouration. There are a great number ofmicroorganisms capable of eliminating colour in wastewater through mechanisms such as: biosorption, anaerobic oraerobic biodegradation and the production of enzymes that catalyse the decolouration process. One of the applicationsof biotechnology is the generation of new microbial strains that may constitute the basis of novel technologies for theremediation of xenobiotic compounds that are not easily degraded by conventional methods. Up to one decade ago,the identi?cation of strains active in degradation was carried out through trial and error (successive rounds of mutagenesis and selection of mutants) or by selecting microorganisms adapted to polluted environments. The developmentof recombinant DNA technologies has generated new prospects for the optimisation of biotechnological processes for environmental treatments.