<p>Rising population and unplanned urbanization have increased the water demands and wastewater generation, leading to environmental issues. Conventional wastewater treatment methods are often costly, energy-intensive, and less effective against emerging contaminants. This encourages the exploration of sustainable approaches using natural biopurifiers like bacteria, microalgae, and macrophytes, which treat wastewater and, in addition, produce valuable bioresources from it. However, their standalone application is limited by high pollutant concentrations, slow treatment rates, environmental sensitivity, etc. Based on existing literature, the review recommends pollutant-specific biopurifier integration to improve treatment efficiency. For instance, macrophyte-bacteria integrated systems remove nitrogen and organic loads, attributed to combined effect of microbial degradation and plant uptake mechanisms, with average removal efficiencies of 78.71% and 83.96%, respectively. Similarly, Bacteria–microalgae consortia show 80.45% average phosphorus removal which is attributed to synergistic nutrient uptake and metabolite exchange. Macrophyte–microalgae integration also shows potential for reducing organic and nitrogen loads; however, further research is recommended due to limited available data. Based on the removal efficiencies, the review suggests employing bacteria–macrophyte systems for nitrogen and organic-rich wastewater and bacteria–microalgae consortia for phosphorus-dominated effluents. Furthermore, the review underlines the importance of bioresource generation from biopurifier biomass being wastewater-specific and taking an integrated strategy to prevent bioaccumulation and biomagnification of toxic substances. Valorization pathway discussion suggests that biopurifiers biomass from treated wastewater is suitable for producing bioethanol and biogas. However, separation and isolation of biopurifier biomass remains a major issue that necessitates additional research and technological developments.</p>

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Integration of natural biofilters for optimal removal of pollutants and recovery of resources from wastewater: a comprehensive review

  • Abhishek Patel,
  • Ram Kumar

摘要

Rising population and unplanned urbanization have increased the water demands and wastewater generation, leading to environmental issues. Conventional wastewater treatment methods are often costly, energy-intensive, and less effective against emerging contaminants. This encourages the exploration of sustainable approaches using natural biopurifiers like bacteria, microalgae, and macrophytes, which treat wastewater and, in addition, produce valuable bioresources from it. However, their standalone application is limited by high pollutant concentrations, slow treatment rates, environmental sensitivity, etc. Based on existing literature, the review recommends pollutant-specific biopurifier integration to improve treatment efficiency. For instance, macrophyte-bacteria integrated systems remove nitrogen and organic loads, attributed to combined effect of microbial degradation and plant uptake mechanisms, with average removal efficiencies of 78.71% and 83.96%, respectively. Similarly, Bacteria–microalgae consortia show 80.45% average phosphorus removal which is attributed to synergistic nutrient uptake and metabolite exchange. Macrophyte–microalgae integration also shows potential for reducing organic and nitrogen loads; however, further research is recommended due to limited available data. Based on the removal efficiencies, the review suggests employing bacteria–macrophyte systems for nitrogen and organic-rich wastewater and bacteria–microalgae consortia for phosphorus-dominated effluents. Furthermore, the review underlines the importance of bioresource generation from biopurifier biomass being wastewater-specific and taking an integrated strategy to prevent bioaccumulation and biomagnification of toxic substances. Valorization pathway discussion suggests that biopurifiers biomass from treated wastewater is suitable for producing bioethanol and biogas. However, separation and isolation of biopurifier biomass remains a major issue that necessitates additional research and technological developments.