A Review of Algae-Based Produced Water Treatment for Biomass and Biofuel Production

Abstract

Produced water (PW), the largest waste stream generated in oil and gas industries, has the potential to be a harmless product rather than being a waste. Biological processes using microorganisms have proven useful to remediate PW contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons, complex organic chemicals, and solvents. In particular, the bioremediation of PW using algae is an eco-friendly and low-cost approach due to algae’s ability to utilize certain pollutants as nutrient sources. Therefore, the utilization of PW as an algal growth medium has a great potential to eliminate chemicals from the PW and minimize the large volumes of freshwater needed for cultivation. Although several reviews describing the bioremediation of PW have been published, to the best of our knowledge, no review has exclusively focused on the algae-based PW treatment. Therefore, the present review is dedicated to filling this gap by portraying the many different facets of the algae cultivation in PW. Several algal species that are known to thrive in a wide range of salinity and the critical steps for their cultivation in hypersaline PW have been identified. Overall, this comprehensive review highlights the PW bioremediation using algae and brings attention to utilizing PW to grow biomass that can be processed to generate biofuels and useful bioproducts.

Use of <em>Dunaliella salina</em> in Environmental Applications <sup>†</sup>

“…as a source of biofuel. Because of these advantages, they are also used as raw material in the energy sector [49,50]. Biofuel production from microalgae consists of four steps: isolation, characterization, biomass production, and harvesting.…”

Electricity Generation in Saudi Arabia: Tracing Opportunities and Challenges to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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Sustainable Production of Reclaimed Water by Constructed Wetlands for Combined Irrigation and Microalgae Cultivation Applications

“…Water scarcity can be mitigated through various strategies and technologies, including more eco-efficient industrial production approaches to reduce water consumption and loss [5], as well as in water supply systems [6], urban users [7], and irrigation of crops or green spaces [8]. The production these issues, using wastewater or reclaimed water can be a contribution to increasing the eco-efficiency of the algal biomass production process [38][39][40].…”