Application of innovative electrochemical and microbial electrochemical technologies for the efficacious removal of emerging contaminants from wastewater: A review

Abstract

The ECs like antibiotics, personal care products, surfactants, herbicides and pesticides are frequently detected in trace concentrations and are not effectively removed through traditional wastewater treatment systems; hence, developing a suitable treatment system for the remediation of ECs is the need of the hour. In this regard, the present review elucidated the applicability of electrochemical technologies (ETs) and microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) for the treatment of emerging contaminants (ECs) laden wastewater. The present state-of-the-art review discusses the detailed mechanism, removal efficiency, relative merits and demerits, and the factors affecting the performance of ETs and METs. Further, the remaining challenges to scale-up and implementation of both the technologies in the field are also elaborated. Among the evaluated technologies, METs demonstrated the greatest potential for the remediation of ECs due to their low operating cost, environmental safety and compatible nature. Although, ETs were found to be promising; however, the high operational cost due to high energy consumption compared to METs limits their real-life application possibilities. Therefore, more scaling-up trails need to be performed and efforts are required to optimize the electrical energy consumption to overcome such limitations, which could help to achieve its full potential. Thus, the aim of this review is to assist the budding researchers to develop comprehensive knowledge about ETs and METs for treating ECs present in wastewater.