Environmental Technologies to Treat Selenium Pollution: Principles and Engineering

Selenium contamination of air, aquatic environments, soils and sediments is a serious environmental concern of increasing importance. Selenium has a paradoxical feature in bringing about health benefits under the prescribed level, but only a few fold increase in its concentration causes deleterious effects to flora and fauna, humans and the environment.

This book Environmental technologies to treat selenium pollution: principles and engineering:

• presents the fundamentals of the biogeochemical selenium cycle and which imbalances in this cycle result in pollution.
• overviews chemical and biological technologies for successful treatment of selenium contaminated water, air, soils and sediments.
• explores the recovery of value-added products from selenium laden waste streams, including biofortication and selenium-based nanoparticles and quantum dots.

This book may serve both as an advanced textbook for undergraduate and graduate students majoring in environmental sciences, technology or engineering as well as a handbook for tertiary educators, researchers, professionals and policy makers who conduct research and practices in selenium related fields. It is essential reading for consulting companies when dealing with selenium related environmental (bio)technologies.

Preface

List of Contributors

Part I The Selenium Cycle

Chapter 1 Selenium in the environment
Martina Cappelletti, Valerio Funari, Giorgio Gasparotto, Enrico Dinelli and Davide Zannoni

Chapter 2 Radioactive selenium: origin and environmental dispersion scenarios
Teba Gil-Díaz, Frank Heberling and Elisabeth Eiche

Chapter 3 Microbial reduction of selenium oxyanions: energy-yielding and detoxification reactions
Silvia Lampis and Giovanni Vallini

Chapter 4 Microbial ecology of selenium-respiring bacteria
Joshua P. Boltz and Bruce E. Rittmann

Part II Remediation of Selenium Contamination

Chapter 5 Reactivity and selectivity of zerovalent iron toward selenium oxyanions under aerobic conditions

Jinxiang Li, Yuankui Sun and Xiaohong Guan

Chapter 6 Biological treatment technologies
Robert Simm

Chapter 7 In situ and ex situ bioremediation of seleniferous soils and sediments

Shrutika L. Wadgaonkar, Piet N. L. Lens

Part III Selenium biofortification

Chapter 8 Selenium hyperaccumulation in plants

Leonardo Warzea Lima and Michela Schiavon

Chapter 9 Selenium biofortification for human and animal nutrition

Jun Li, Gijs Du Laing, Ivet Ferrer and Piet N. L. Lens

Part IV Selenium nanoparticles and quantum dots

Chapter 10 Se nanoparticle manufacturing for medical applications

Alessandro Presentato, Elena Piacenza and Raymond J. Turner

Chapter 11 Biological synthesis of metal selenide nanoparticles and their applications

Raj Mohan Balakrishnan and Vrushali Vinayak Kadam

Chapter 12 Biosynthesis of selenium nanomaterials by anaerobic bacteria for environmental technologies

Piet N. L. Lens

Index