Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology

Contact: 1111 Budapest, Gellért square 4.CH. II. 260
Website: link
Focal points and main thrusts of research:
  • Risk assessment and characterisation of chemical substances
  • Development of ecotoxicological tests: aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology
  • Ecotoxicity assessment of soil, water and sediments and of chemical substances
  • Planning and demonstration of soil remediation technologies
  • Enhanced bioremediation
  • Cyclodextrines in environmental technologies
    • Quorum sensing (QS) - bacterial communication
  • Emerging pollutants: monitoring, measurement of the effects, removal from water and soil
  • Soil amelioration with wastes
    • Landfill covers from wastes
    • Soil improvement with the application of industrial wastes (fly ash, red mud) and agricultural biomass waste (compost, biochar)
  • Complex management of contaminated sites:
    • Sites contaminated with organic pollutants (petroleum hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons)
    • Gyöngyösoroszi abandoned mining area contaminated with base metal sulphides
    • Ajka area further to the red mud spill
  • Complex re-use technologies for red mud
Introduction:

The Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology research group at BME has worked for more than 25 years in environmental risk management associated topics, namely environmental risk assessment and development of environmental risk mitigation technologies. The group members have manifold experience in the quantitative environmental risk assessment of chemical substances and in the development of ecotoxicity tests applicable to soil and water. Another important research area of the group is the complex environmental risk management of sites contaminated with metals and/or organic substances and the development of new environmental-friendly remediation technologies. The group has established the dynamically developing ENFO Environmental Knowledge Base, the Database and the Decision Support Tool the aim of which was making easily available for everyone the knowledge accumulated during the years.

This Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology research group is the centre of environmental risk assessment and soil remediation in Hungary. Its reference works, in collaboration with various partners, include bioremediation (i.e. enhanced bioremediation with cyclodextrin) of several hydrocarbon contaminated sites, environmental risk assessment of the Gyöngyösoroszi sulphide ore mining site and development of a combined chemical and phytoremediation technology, environmental risk assessment of the Ajka red mud flood-affected area, development of cyclodextrin-based water treatment technologies, development of soil amelioration technologies with waste utilisation and development of landfill cover systems utilising suitable wastes. The group has developed integrated monitoring methodologies for environmental risk assessment, amongst which the soil microbiological and ecotoxicity methods able to characterise the actual risk of contaminants have gained special attention. The group has developed various direct contact soil tests and water ecotoxicity tests applying several sub-lethal endpoints with test organisms from several trophic levels, such as bacteria (ex. Aliivibrio fischeri, Salmonella typhimurium mutagenicity test), plants (ex. Lemna minor), single cell- (ex. Tetrahymena pyriformis) and multicellular (ex. Daphnia magna, Heterocypris incongruens, Folsomia candia – Collembola) animals.

The group is involved in the teaching of the following disciplines for the bio-enginneering and environmental engineering specialisation at BME: environmental risk management, soil remediation, soil protection, environmental microbiology, environmental toxicology and in the supervision of individual student works, Bachelor theses and Master theses.

Sample publications:

Journal articles

Farkas, E., Feigl, V., Gruiz, K., Vaszita, E., Ujaczki, E., Fekete-Kertész, I., Tolner, M., Horváth, CM., Berkl Z., Uzinger N., Rékási, M., Molnár, M., (2018) Microcosm incubation study for monitoring the mid-term effects of different biochars on acidic sandy soil applying a multiparameter approach, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 120, 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2018.08.027

Ujaczki, É., Feigl, V., Molnár, M., Cusack, P., Curtin, T., Courtney, R., O'Donoghue, L., Davris, P., Hugi, C., W.H. Evangelou, M., Balomenos, E., Lenz, M. (2018). Reusing bauxite residues: benefits beyond (critical raw) material recovery. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology. doi: 10.1002/jctb.5687

Fekete-Kertész, I., Piszman, D., Molnár, M. (2017) Particle size and concentration dependent ecotoxicity of nano- and microscale TiO2 -comparative study by different aquatic test organisms of different trophic levels, Water Air & Soil Pollution, 228:245, 1–17. doi: 10.1007/s11270-017-3394-5

Ujaczki, É., Zimmermann, Y., Gasser, C., Molnár, M., Feigl, V., Lenz, M. (2017) Red mud as secondary source for critical raw materials – Extraction study, Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotehnology, doi: 10.1002/jctb.5300


 

Feigl, V., Ujaczki É., Vaszita, E., Molnár M. (2017) Influence of red mud on soil microbial communities: application and comprehensive evaluation of the Biolog EcoPlate approach as a tool in soil microbiological studies, Science of the Total Environment, 595, 903–911. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.266

Ujaczki, É., Zimmermann, Y.S., Gasser, C.A., Molnár, M., Feigl, V., Lenz, M. (2017) Red mud as secondary source for critical raw materials – Purification of rare earth elements by liquid/liquid extraction, Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotehnology. doi: 10.1002/jctb.5289

Molnár, M., Vaszita, E., Farkas, É., Ujaczki, É., Fekete-Kertész, I., Tolner, M., Klebercz, O., Kirchkeszner, Cs., Gruiz, K., Uzinger, N., Feigl, V. (2016) Acidic sandy soil improvement with biochar – a microcosm study, Science of the Total Environment, 563–564, 855–865. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.091.

Gruiz, K., Fekete-Kertész, I., Kunglné Nagy, Zs., Hajdu, Cs., Feigl, V., Vaszita, E., Molnár, M. (2016) Direct toxicity assessment – methods, evaluation, interpretation, Science of the Total Environment, 563–564, 803–812, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.007

Ujaczki, É., Feigl, V., Farkas, É., Vaszita, E., Gruiz, K., Molnár, M. (2016) Red mud as acidic sandy soil ameliorant: a microcosm incubation study, Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 91 (6), 1596–1606. doi: 10.1002/jctb.4898

Ujaczki, É., Feigl V., Molnár, M., Vaszita E., Uzinger, N., Erdélyi A., Gruiz, K. (2016) The potential application of red mud and soil mixture as additive to the surface layer of a landfill cover system: field-study, Journal of Environmental Sciences, 44, 189–196. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2015.12.014

Fekete-Kertész, I., Kunglné Nagy, Zs., Gruiz, K., Magyar, Á., Farkas, É., Molnár, M. (2015) Assessing toxicity of organic aquatic micropollutants based on the total chlorophyll content of Lemna minor as a sensitive endpoint, Periodica Polytechnica – Chemical Engineering, 59 (4), 262–271. doi: 10.3311/PPch.8077

Nagy, Z.M., Molnár, M., Fekete-Kertész, I., Molnár-Perl, I., Fenyvesi, E., Gruiz, K. (2014) Removal of emerging micropollutants from water using cyclodextrin, Science of the Total Environment, 485–486, 711–719. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.04.003

Klebercz, O., Mayes, W.M., Anton, Á.D., Feigl, V., Jarvis, A.P., Gruiz, K. (2012) Ecotoxicity of fluvial sediments downstream of the Ajka red mud spill, Hungary, Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 14 (8), 2063–2071. doi: 10.1039/c2em30155e

Burke, IT., Mayes, WM., Peacock, CL., Brown, AP.,  Jarvis, AP., Gruiz, K.  (2012) Speciation of Arsenic, Chromium, and Vanadium in red mud samples from the Ajka spill site, Hungary. Environmental Science & Technology, 46, 3085−3092. dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3003475

Renforth, P., Mayes, W.M., Jarvis, A.P., Burke, I.T., Manning, D.A.C. and Gruiz, K. (2012) Contaminant mobility and carbon sequestration downstream of the Ajka (Hungary) red mud spill: The effects of gypsum dosing, Science of the Total Environment, 421–422, 253–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.01.046

Mayes, W.M., Jarvis, A.P., Burke, I.T., Walton, M., Feigl, V., Klebercz, O., Gruiz, K. (2011) Dispersal and attenuation of trace contaminants downstream of the Ajka bauxite residue (red mud) depository failure, Hungary, Environmental Science & Technology, 45 (12), 5147–5155. doi: 10.1021/es200850y

Gruiz, K., Molnár, M., Fenyvesi, É., Hajdú, Cs., Atkari, Á., Barkács, K. (2011) Cyclodextrins in innovative engineering tools for risk-based environmental management, Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry (ISSN: 1388-3127), 70:(3-4), 299–306. doi: 10.1007/s10847-010-9909-y

Leitgib, L., Gruiz, K., Fenyvesi, É., Balogh, G., Murányi, A. (2008) Development of an innovative soil remediation: “Cyclodextrin-enhanced combined technology”, Science of the Total Environment, 392, 12–21. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.10.055

Leitgib, L., Kálmán, J. and Gruiz, K. (2007) Comparison of bioassays by testing whole soil and their water extract from contaminated sites, Chemosphere, 66, 428–434, doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.06.024

Book editing

Gruiz, K., Meggyes, T., Fenyvesi, É. (Eds) (2019) Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management, 4.  Risk Reduction Technologies and Case Studies, CRC Press/Balkema, Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK, 558p., ISBN: 9781138001572  ISBN: 9781317697428, https://doi.org/10.1201/b20405

Gruiz, K., Meggyes, T., Fenyvesi, É. (Eds) (2016) Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management, 3. Site Assessment and Monitoring Tools, CRC Press/Balkema, Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK, 447p., ISBN: 978-1-138-00156-5

Gruiz, K., Meggyes, T., Fenyvesi, É. (Eds) (2015) Engineering tools for environmental risk management, 2. Environmental toxicology, CRC Press/Balkema, Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK, 447p., ISBN 978-1-138-00155-8

Gruiz, K., Meggyes, T., Fenyvesi, É. (Eds) (2014) Engineering tools for environmental risk management, 1. Environmental Deterioration and Contamination - Problems and their Management, CRC Press/Balkema, Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK, 447p., ISBN:978-1-138-00154-1 (Hbk), ISBN: 978-1-315-77878-5 (eBook PDF).

Awards and achievements:

-        „K&H for sustainable agriculture” 2016 scholarship scheme – 1. prize, Scientific Students' Associations Conference (TDK) category, Bacsárdi Szilvia and Rózsa Máté: Innovative soil amelioration with biochar - from the laboratoy to field application (TDK paper) Supervisor: Dr. Molnár Mónika (BME)

-        „K&H for sustainable agriculture” 2017 scholarship scheme – 2. prize, Scientific Students' Associations Conference (TDK) category: Kirchkeszner Csaba: Innovative soil amelioration with biochar - from the laboratoy to field application (TDK paper) Supervisor: Dr. Molnár Mónika (BME)

Guest professors:
Group leader: Dr. Molnár Mónika