Bioremediation Paves the Way for New Environmental Restoration The Dawn of Purification Technology Demonstrated by Microorganisms and Enzymes (1994)

Bioremediation Paves the Way for New Environmental Restoration The Dawn of Purification Technology Demonstrated by Microorganisms and Enzymes (1994)
In 1994, the world was facing the growing seriousness of environmental pollution, and there was a growing awareness that conventional engineering treatment alone had its limits. The massive use of chemical substances that had continued since the period of rapid economic growth had accumulated in diverse forms, including groundwater and soil contamination, and had reached a stage where government regulations alone could not keep up. While volatile organic compounds and heavy metal contamination became visible throughout Japan, bioremediation, which uses the decomposition action of microorganisms and enzymes to remove contamination, began to attract international attention.
The OECD and the U.S. EPA predicted that bioremediation would be worth tens of billions of dollars by the year 2000, and it was recognized as a "next-generation purification technology" because of its lower environmental impact than chemical treatment and its ability to be treated on-site. In fact, the use of microorganisms to clean up oil spills has been introduced and has been successful, and in Japan, research on the application of microorganisms to the treatment of TCE, oil pollution, and heavy metals has also progressed.
In Japan, in-situ soil remediation technology, which purifies soil in-situ, has attracted attention due to the limitations of conventional excavation and transport methods. Several local governments, universities, and companies launched joint research projects, and this was a time when the application of microbial functions was becoming a reality.
The 1994 article is a record of the moment when the idea of "restoring the environment with the power of nature" was born, and reflects a shift in values more than technology. Bioremediation represented the dawn of a new direction for environmental policy and industry.