Chapter 12 - Microalgal-based bioremediation of emerging contaminants in wastewater: a sustainable approach

Abstract

Emerging contaminants (ECs) in wastewater (WW) are generally antibiotics, pesticides, and personal pharmaceutical care and heavy metals that have been recently noticed in the aquatic ecosystem. Lack of knowledge and the existence of these contaminants in the aquatic environment can cause a chronic effect on humans and the environment. Therefore, traditional WW treatment plants still are expensive and mainly focus on solid waste and nutrient removal. However, it is ineffective in the removal of ECs and there is a necessity to develop an advanced proficient and beneficial EC treatment technology for different WW types. Microalgae-based bioremediation procedure could be a promising approach to degrade the ECs. There are three main pathways are involved in the microalgal bioremediation of ECs: bioadsorption, biouptake, and biodegradation followed by biotransformation. Microalgal biodegradation is one of the most promising technologies of EC bioremediation because it involves the breakdown of a complex compounds into the simpler or less toxic compounds. In addition to EC removal, the biomass of algal species can be effective feedstock to generate beneficial bioenergy products from WW microalgae. This chapter summarizes the ECs present in WW and their remediation through microalgae.