Cited by 81Algal biology and biofuel productionWastewater Treatment and ReuseAquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics

Potential of microalgae in bioremediation of wastewater

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Ahmad, Imran, Abdullah, Norhayati, Koji, I., Yuzir, A., Mohamad, S.E.·2021·Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis

Abstract

The increase in global pollution, industrialization and fast economic progress are considered to inflict serious consequences to the quality and availability of water throughout the world. Wastewater is generated from three major sources, i.e. industrial, agricultural, and municipal which contain pollutants, such as: xenobiotics, microplastics, heavy metals and augmented by high amount of carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen compounds. Wastewater treatment is one of the most pressing issues since it cannot be achieved by any specific technology because of the varying nature and concentrations of pollutants and efficiency of the treatment technologies. The degradation capacity of these conventional treatment technologies is limited, especially regarding heavy metals, nutrients, and xenobiotics, steering the researchers to bioremediation using microalgae (Phycoremediation). Bioremediation can be defined as use of microalgae for removal or biotransformation of pollutants and CO2 from wastewater with concomitant biomass production. However, the usage of wastewaters for the bulk cultivation of microalgae is advantageous for reducing carbon, nutrients cost, minimizing the consumption of freshwater, nitrogen, phosphorus recovery, and removal of other pollutants from wastewater and producing sufficient biomass for value addition for either biofuels or other value-added compounds. Several types of microalgae like Chlorella and Dunaliella have proved their applicability in the treatment of wastewaters. The bottlenecks concerning the microalgal wastewater bioremediation need to be identified and elucidated to proceed in bioremediation using microalgae. This objective of this paper is to provide an insight about the treatment of different wastewaters using microalgae and microalgal potential in the treatment of wastewaters containing heavy metals and emerging contaminants, with the specialized cultivation systems. This review also summarizes the end use applications of microalgal biomass which makes the bioremediation aspect more environmentally sustainable. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

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  • Numerous microalgal species have an excellent capability for bioremediation of nutrients, heavy metals, emerging pollutants and pathogens from wastewater.

    “Numerous microalgal species, including Scenedesmus, Chlorella, Botryococcus, Phormidium, Limnospira (formerly Arthrospira, Spirulina), and Chlamydomonas, have been confirmed to have an excellent capability for the bioremediation of nutrients, HMs, emerging pollutants and pathogens from WW [33,34].”

    From Microalgae-based wastewater treatment: Mechanisms, challenges, recent advances, and future prospects (2023) · cites this paper as [34]

    The Introduction and §2.1 describe microalgal removal of nutrients, heavy metals, and emerging contaminants from wastewater, and §2.1 and the case studies name several of the listed genera. The copy does not establish pathogen removal, and its statement that treatment checks bacterial growth does not demonstrate removal of pathogens. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Microalgae have a high potential to remove contaminants from the effluents of industries and urban areas.

    “They have a high potential to remove contaminants from the effluents of industries and urban areas.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 13

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Authors
Ahmad, I., Abdullah, N., Koji, I., Yuzir, A., & Mohamad, S. E.
Affiliations
University of Technology Malaysia (MY)
Venue
Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
Published
2021-04-29
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
413-429
ISSN
1978-2993 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3161363313
Cited by
71
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 3
FWCI
1.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • BULLETIN OF CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING AND CATALYSIS (publishedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology
  • Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
Keywords
microalgae, phycoremediation, wastewater treatment, heavy metals, emerging contaminants, microplastics, xenobiotics, nutrient removal, microalgal biomass valorization, Chlorella, Dunaliella, biofuels

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