Bioaugmentation: An Emerging Strategy of Industrial Wastewater Treatment for Reuse and Discharge

Abstract

A promising long-term and sustainable solution to the growing scarcity of water worldwide is to recycle and reuse wastewater. In wastewater treatment plants, the biodegradation of contaminants or pollutants by harnessing microorganisms present in activated sludge is one of the most important strategies to remove organic contaminants from wastewater. However, this approach has limitations because many pollutants are not efficiently eliminated. To counterbalance the limitations, bioaugmentation has been developed and consists of adding specific and efficient pollutant-biodegrading microorganisms into a microbial community in an effort to enhance the ability of this microbial community to biodegrade contaminants. This approach has been tested for wastewater cleaning with encouraging results, but failure has also been reported, especially during scale-up. In this review, work on the bioaugmentation in the context of removal of important pollutants from industrial wastewater is summarized, with an emphasis on recalcitrant compounds, and strategies that can be used to improve the efficiency of bioaugmentation are also discussed. This review also initiates a discussion regarding new research areas, such as nanotechnology and quorum sensing, that should be investigated to improve the efficiency of wastewater bioaugmentation.

Agricultural and Other Biotechnological Applications Resulting from Trophic Plant-Endophyte Interactions

“…Bioaugumentation is a technique that is based on the addition of microorganisms that have the ability to biodegrade recalcitrant molecules in a polluted environment [108].…”

Comprehensive Source Control for Potable Reuse

“…Sidestream granular activated sludge to enhance nitrification and prompt phosphorus removal is another approach that can be used to produce a high-quality effluent (Figdore et al, 2018). The effective removal of specific constituents through bioaugmentation has been demonstrated repeatedly (Cardinal and Stenstrom, 1991;Babcock et al, 1992;Nzila et al, 2016). When bioaugmentation was introduced in the early 1990s there was an initial interest, but no compelling reason to adopt bioaugmentation.…”

Effectiveness of wastewater treatment systems in removing microbial agents: a systematic review

“…In arid and semiarid countries such as Iran, the water demand has increased and annual rainfall is low also in regions of North Africa, Southern Europe, and in large countries such as Australia and the United States. Consequently, reuse of sewage is the most sustainable and long-term solution to the problem of water scarcity [4,5]. In the next 30 years, the world's population will increase by more than double.…”