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Advances in responses of microalgal-bacterial symbiosis to emerging pollutants in wastewater
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Researchers reviewed how microalgal-bacterial symbiotic systems respond to antibiotics, heavy metals, nanoparticles, and microplastics in wastewater, finding that antibiotics exhibit hormesis effects (stimulatory at low doses, inhibitory at high doses) and that the consortium tolerates heavy metals below 1 mg/L but loses treatment efficacy at 10 mg/L.
Nowadays, emerging pollutants are widely used and exist in wastewater, such as antibiotics, heavy metals, nanoparticle and microplastic. As a green alternative for wastewater treatment, microalgal-bacterial symbiosis has been aware of owning multiple merits of low energy consumption and little greenhouse gas emission. Thus, the responses of microalgal-bacterial symbiosis to emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment have become a hotspot in recent years. In this review paper, the removal performance of microalgal-bacterial symbiosis on organics, nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater containing emerging pollutants has been summarized. The adaptation mechanisms of microalgal-bacterial symbiosis to emerging pollutants have been analyzed. It is found that antibiotics usually have hormesis effects on microalgal-bacterial symbiosis, and that microalgal-bacterial symbiosis appears to show more capacity to remove tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole, rather than oxytetracycline and enrofloxacin. Generally, microalgal-bacterial symbiosis can adapt to heavy metals at a concentration of less than 1 mg/L, but its capabilities to remove contaminants can be significantly affected at 10 mg/L heavy metals. Further research should focus on the influence of mixed emerging pollutants on microalgal-bacterial symbiosis, and the feasibility of using selected emerging pollutants (e.g., antibiotics) as a carbon source for microalgal-bacterial symbiosis should also be explored. This review is expected to deepen our understandings on emerging pollutants removal from wastewater by microalgal-bacterial symbiosis.
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