Limitations of Bioremediation

Bioremediation is generally limited to environments where dissolved contaminants are available to microbes.  Rapid removal of a non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) source is not realistic by any known bioremediation technology; source reduction and source control are more realistic goals.  Bioremediation can be used to accelerate the removal of non-aqueous phase sources (NAPL) and to prevent NAPL sources from contaminating ground water and producing a large dissolved-phase plume.