Chapter 18 - Usage and disposal strategies of environmental micropollutants

Abstract

Global water shortages are driving the need to find new sources of water. If appropriate treatment technologies can be developed, wastewater may be a potential water resource. The main obstacle to attain pure water from wastewater is due to the existence of organic trace pollutants, which are active at minimal concentrations. It is very expensive to remove these compounds from wastewater through current physical and chemical technologies. Although the biological treatment process is relatively cheap, the current system cannot degrade a variety of organic micropollutants present in wastewater. Trace pollutants have become a severe environmental issue, which has had numerous adverse effects on human health and the ecosystem. In order to remove micropollutants using various physical, chemical, and biological methods, many efforts have been made. So far, the most concerned is the wastewater treatment technology based on microalgae to attain high-quality wastewater, recover algae biomass for use as fertilizer, protein-rich feed, biofuel, and use it for other useful purposes. This chapter focused on strategies we discussed that can be used to develop biological wastewater treatment systems capable of degrading organic micropollutants, and potential of microalgae-based systems to remove micropollutants from open ponds to closed photobioreactors, and by suspending microalgae cells, immobilized cells, or microalgae-microbe alliance. The inhibitory effect of micropollutants on the growth of microalgae and the micropollutant removal mechanism carried out by the microalgae-based system are also described.