Enzymes of Significance to the Restoration of Polluted Systems: Traditional and Advanced Approaches

In the second part of the twentieth century, intense environmental pollution has been one of the biggest concerns for science. Xenobiotic chemicals are continuously released into the biosphere because of several industrial and/or agricultural activities. In particular, the rapid industrialization of agriculture, expansions in the chemical industry, and the need to generate cheap forms of energy have all resulted in an ever-increasing reliance on anthropogenic organic chemicals and caused the contamination of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the soil environment. Examples of xenobiotics very dangerous for the environment and considered very often priority pollutants are shown in Figure 1.