Abstract
The tannery industry is one of the economic sectors that contributes to the development of different countries. Globally, Europe and Asia are the main producers of this industry, although Latin America and Africa have been growing considerably in recent years. With this growth, the negative environmental impacts towards different ecosystem resources as a result of the discharges of recalcitrated pollutants, have led to different investigations to generate alternative solutions. Worldwide, different technologies have been studied to address this problem, biological and physicochemical processes have been widely studied, presenting drawbacks with some recalcitrant compounds. This review provides a context on the different existing technologies for the treatment of tannery wastewater, analyzing the physicochemical composition of this liquid waste, the impact it generates on human health and ecosystems and the advances in the different existing technologies, focusing on advanced oxidation processes and the use of microalgae. The coupling of advanced oxidation processes with biological processes, mainly microalgae, is seen as a viable biotechnological strategy, not only for the removal of pollutants, but also to obtain value-added products with potential use in the biorefining of the biomass.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Advanced oxidation processes and biological processes have gained popularity in recent years; they require further study to specify the optimal conditions for their operation
Different strategies have been implemented for the treatment of tannery wastewater, as this process leads to the generation of polluting loads with high environmental impact
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Various techniques for treating tannery wastewater have been studied, focused on the removal of pollutants, chromium Some of these technologies are chemical coagulation, photodegradation, biodegradation, adsorption, ozonation, electrocoagulation and reverse osmosis [13]; the difficulty of implementing them is related to high energy consumption, use of large areas of land, high operation and maintenance costs [14]; in the same way, in some processes, other polluting byproducts are generated [15]. In Colombia, several research studies have been carried out to mitigate the impacts; among them are the identification and evaluation of pollutants [31]; the use of the Eichhornia crassipes plant has been reported in pilot-scale treatment of tannery water due to its capacity to accumulate heavy metals and organic matter [32]; the genotoxic effect of tannery effluents on Salmonella typhimurium strains has been studied, identifying a mutagenic increase and the capacity to generate DNA damage in human lymphocytes [31,32,33]. This review exposes the current situation of tannery wastewater treatments, focusing on the implementation of new biotechnological tools and, in more detail, on the use of microalgae as a treatment to reduce pollutant loads and the use of metabolites of microalgae in this process as a source of biofuels or byproducts of industrial interest
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