The Use of Algae and Fungi for Removal of Pharmaceuticals by Bioremediation and Biosorption Processes: A Review

Abstract

The occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment is recognized as one of the emerging issues in environmental chemistry. Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not designed to remove pharmaceuticals (and their metabolites) from domestic wastewaters. The treatability of pharmaceutical compounds in WWTPs varies considerably depending on the type of compound since their biodegradability can differ significantly. As a consequence, they may reach the aquatic environment, directly or by leaching of the sludge produced by these facilities. Currently, the technologies under research for the removal of pharmaceuticals, namely membrane technologies and advanced oxidation processes, have high operation costs related to energy and chemical consumption. When chemical reactions are involved, other aspects to consider include the formation of harmful reaction by-products and the management of the toxic sludge produced. Research is needed in order to develop economic and sustainable treatment processes, such as bioremediation and biosorption. The use of low-cost materials, such as biological matrices (e.g., algae and fungi), has advantages such as low capital investment, easy operation, low operation costs, and the non-formation of degradation by-products. An extensive review of existing research on this subject is presented.

Isolation of Fungal Strains from Municipal Wastewater for the Removal of Pharmaceutical Substances

“…Over the last decade, most studies on fungi have been conducted on an autoclaved media [14,20,21]. Therefore, the results were not always relevant to situations where fungi are applied to raw wastewater conditions [1].…”

“…Therefore, in order to better understand the removal mechanisms for the isolate F3, the enzyme activity of laccase was measured to better understand the relationship between the enzyme activity and the removal efficiency for DIC. Laccase has been reported as an enzyme that can degrade a variety of pharmaceutical compounds, e.g., T. versicolor has shown an ability to remove ibuprofen and carbamazepine with the laccase enzyme [14].…”

“…Thus, determination of the removal potential of residential wastewater fungi is an important task in developing industrial process applications in order to accomplish the long-term goal of pharmaceutical removal. Furthermore, when using low-cost materials such as fungi, advantages includes a low capital investment, relatively simple operations, low operating costs, and the lack of degradation by-products [14,15].…”

Green Microalgae Scenedesmus Obliquus Utilization for the Adsorptive Removal of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) from Water Samples

“…Among the novel approaches for the removal of pharmaceuticals from water, microalgae-based treatments have received growing attention in the last years [23][24][25][26], with promising results in the specific case of NSAIDs removal [27][28][29]. Biodegradation, biosorption and bioaccumulation have been established as the main mechanisms involved in the removal of pharmaceuticals from water by microalgae culturing [26][27][28][29][30]. Indeed, most of the published works in this field are on the uptake of pharmaceuticals by living microalgae [23][24][25]30].…”

“…(2) long durability without losing sorptive properties; (3) absence of toxicity effects that may affect the treatment performance; (4) possibility of desorbing the pollutant and reutilization of microalgal biomass; and (5) lower operational costs, including the need for growth media [26,33,37]. Moreover, due to present knowledge, the adsorptive removal onto dead microalgae biomass has the advantage of not generating transformation products and metabolites with unknown toxicity effects, while in the case of living microalgae it may occur during biodegradation [37][38][39].…”