Removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from wastewater using algae-based technologies: a review

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) consist of a variety of compounds extensively used for the treatment of human and animal diseases and for health or cosmetic reasons. PPCPs are considered as emerging environmental contaminants due to their ubiquitous presence in the environment and high environmental risks. In wastewater treatment plants using conventional activated sludge processes, many PPCPs cannot be efficiently removed. Therefore, there is an increasing need for more effective and cost-efficiency ways of removing PPCPs while treating wastewater. Algae-based technologies have recently attracted growing attentions for their potential application in wastewater treatment and hazardous contaminant removal, which are advantages in reducing operation cost while generating valuable products and sequestrating greenhouse gases at the same time. This work reviews the up-to date researches to reveal potential toxic effects of PPCPs on algae and algae-bacteria consortia, identify mechanisms involved in PPCP removal, and assess the fate of PPCPs in algae-based treatment systems. Current researches suggest that algae and algae-bacteria consortia have great potentials in PPCP removal but more works are required before algae-based technologies can be implemented in large scales. Knowledge gaps are identified and further research focuses are proposed in this review.

Recycling nutrients contained in human excreta to agriculture: Pathways, processes, and products

“…Algal systems have been found to have the potential to simultaneously extract N and P (as well as K and micronutrients) (Shilton et al, 2012;Vasconcelos Fernandes et al, 2015; Suka cov a & Cerven y, 2017), but have also been found to extract organic pollutants (de Wilt et al, 2016) and heavy metals (Zeraatkar et al, 2016;Demey et al, 2018) through sorption. Moreover, algae were found to have the potential to degrade some organic pollutants (de Wilt et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2017).…”

Ficorremediación de Aguas Residuales Urbanas de Pequeños Municipios con Microalgas

“…La ficorremediación mediante microalgas aprovecha la cinética de consumo de nutrientes de estos microorganismos, con la eliminación de otros contaminantes como fármacos (Y. Wang et al, 2017;Villar-Navarro et al, 2018), metales pesados (Wilde y Benemann, 1993;Yu y Wang, 2004), e incluso de forma general, se consigue una mayor detoxificación del agua residual (Díaz-Garduño et al, 2017). Asimismo, la ficorremediación permite promover en un mismo fotobiorreactor, el crecimiento conjunto de bacterias y microalgas estableciéndose una sinergia entre ambas poblaciones.…”

Using agro-industrial wastes for the cultivation of microalgae and duckweeds: Contamination risks and biomass safety concerns

“…During cultivation of microalgae/duckweed in media that contain xenobiotics, various removal mechanisms take place such as adsorption onto (bio)solids, cell uptake, volatilization, photodegradation and biological degradation and transformation (Wang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2014a). However, the type of removal mechanism depends on the physico-chemical characteristics of the compounds resulting in a significant variation in the degree and type of removal or uptake (Fig.…”

“…However, the type of removal mechanism depends on the physico-chemical characteristics of the compounds resulting in a significant variation in the degree and type of removal or uptake (Fig. 2) (Matamoros et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2014a).…”

“…Investigations into growing microalgae/duckweed in the presence of veterinary antibiotics are very scarce. When studied, microalgae and duckweed have been shown to be successfully employed for the removal of various antibiotics (Wang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2014a). The microalgal uptake, along with photodegradation (contributing around 21%) eliminated > 88% of the compound (Santaeufemia et al, 2016).…”