Industrial activities and agricultural intensification have accelerated soil contamination worldwide, threatening human well-being and the ecosystem. Petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides, and emerging organic pollutants degrade soil quality and impair ecosystem services, highlighting the need for sustainable remediation approaches. Bioremediation employs microorganisms (archaea, fungi, and bacteria) to degrade, immobilize, or transform contaminants into non-toxic forms. This chapter quantifies research evolution, evaluates bioremediation strategies, and proposes sustainable implementation pathways. A bibliometric analysis of 78 Scopus-indexed records (2006–2025) identified an annual growth rate of 12.88%, with trends visualized using Biblioshiny. Remediation strategies were categorized into in-situ techniques (bioaugmentation, biosparging, bioventing, and biostimulation), ex-situ approaches (slurry bioreactors, composting, biopiles, and land farming), and mixed methods integrating phytoremediation and mycoremediation. Comparative evaluation indicated that bioslurry had the lowest median cost (~ 22 US$), while bioaugmentation achieved 75.4% petroleum hydrocarbon removal within 12 weeks. Case studies from India, China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia reported removal efficiencies ranging from 64.65 to 98.91% across diverse contamination scenarios. Key challenges include contaminant recalcitrance, environmental variability, prolonged treatment durations, and data-integration barriers for artificial intelligence applications. Future directions emphasize synthetic biology, machine-learning models, CRISPR-based microbial engineering, and nanotechnology-enhanced bioavailability to advance sustainable soil restoration.
Business Outlook Survey
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19 August 2026
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