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Bioremediation of Nutrients and Heavy Metals from Wastewater by Microalgal Cells: Mechanism and Kinetics

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Microbial Genomics in Sustainable Agroecosystems

Abstract

Conventional chemical and physical treatment methods applied for the treatment of wastewater tend to be complicated, energy demanding and expensive. Biological waste treatment process involving microalgae provides an economical, sustainable and alternate means of advanced wastewater treatment process coupled with simultaneous recovery of nutrients and manufacture of commercially valuable products like single-cell protein, biofuel, etc. Updated information regarding the advancements made in the treatment process, mechanism and kinetic models involved in nutrient removal by microalgae are provided in this review. Advancements such ultrasonic treatment, use of algal-bacterial symbiosis system, blending of two different wastewater and use of photo-sequencing batch bioreactors for the treatment of municipal, domestic, livestock and industrial wastewater are discussed in brief. The present work focuses mainly on the primary mechanisms involved in the assimilation of nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus inside the microalgal cell. Not only a brief description of metal-ion uptake by processes such as ion exchange, complex formation, precipitation and physical adsorption and role of the plasma membrane, cell wall, vacuoles, chloroplast and mitochondria is discussed in this investigation, but also the various kinetic models of nutrient removal such as Stover-Kincannon, Michaelis-Menten, Gompertz model and Luedeking-Piret model with their experimental curve fitting results obtained from microalgal cell-mediated treatment process are also discussed.

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Abbreviations

ADP:

Adenosine diphosphate

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

BOD:

Biological oxygen demand

Cd2+:

Cadmium ion

Co:

Cobalt

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

Conc.:

Concentration

Cr2O72-:

Chromate ion

Cr3+& Cr6+:

Chromium ions

Cu2+:

Copper ion

DW:

Domestic wastewater

Fe3+:

Ferrous ion

H2O:

Water molecule

H2PO4 − :

Dihydrogen phosphate

HCO3 − :

Bicarbonate

Hg2+:

Mercury ion

HMs:

Heavy metal

HPO4 :

Hydrogen phosphate

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

N:

Nitrogen

NADP:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate

NH4 +-N:

Ammonium nitrogen

Ni2+:

Nickel ion

NO3 −-N:

Nitrate nitrogen

O2 :

Oxygen

P:

Phosphorus

Pb2+:

Lead ion

PO4 3−-P:

Phosphate phosphorus

RE:

Removal efficiency

RuBisco:

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

Temp.:

Temperature

TKN:

Total Kjeldahl nitrogen

TN:

Total nitrogen

TOC:

Total organic carbon

TP:

Total phosphorus

Zn2+:

Zinc ion

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  1. School of Biochemical Engineering, IIT (BHU), Varanasi, India

    Vishal Singh & Vishal Mishra

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  1. Vishal Singh
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  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Vijay Tripathi

  2. Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Pradeep Kumar

  3. Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Pooja Tripathi

  4. Department of Botany, Kamla Nehru P.G. College, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Amit Kishore

  5. Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Madhu Kamle

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Singh, V., Mishra, V. (2019). Bioremediation of Nutrients and Heavy Metals from Wastewater by Microalgal Cells: Mechanism and Kinetics. In: Tripathi, V., Kumar, P., Tripathi, P., Kishore, A., Kamle, M. (eds) Microbial Genomics in Sustainable Agroecosystems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9860-6_16

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