review · Water
Heavy metal pollution poses severe risks to terrestrial and aquatic environments, while conventional cleanup methods remain costly and frequently inefficient. Microalgae present a viable alternative through biosorption, utilising their natural metal-binding traits to remediate contaminated wastewater from diverse origins. In addition to water purification, microalgae can exploit wastewater as a growth matrix to generate valuable bioproducts, biomaterials, and bioenergy. The review highlights the role of microalgae within decentralised water treatment systems, which treat pollutants directly at the point of generation. This approach provides significant benefits for areas hindered by geographic barriers, financial constraints, or deficient infrastructure, while also offering practical solutions for rapidly growing urban areas and emergency disaster relief operations.
Heavy metal contamination threatens ecosystem stability and public health, yet conventional treatment methods are often economically or logistically impractical. Harnessing microalgae allows communities and industries to clean water naturally while generating useful byproducts. This approach supports cleaner water access in areas lacking centralised infrastructure, expanding urban settlements, and crisis settings where conventional treatment networks cannot operate.
This work points toward commercial applications in decentralised industrial effluent management, emergency water treatment, and the co-production of bioenergy and biomaterials. Target adopters include industrial operators, municipal water authorities, and disaster relief agencies. Because this is a review paper synthesising broad mechanisms and conceptual decentralised systems, the technology appears to be in the early to applied research phase rather than near market deployment.
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Environmental contamination by heavy metals poses significant threats to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, necessitating the development of effective remediation strategies. Conventional methods for heavy metal removal exhibit limitations, including inadequate efficiency and elevated costs. In this context, microalgae have emerged as a promising bioremediation approach due to their robust metal-binding capabilities, specifically through biosorption. This review comprehensively examines the role of microalgae in addressing heavy metal pollution, with a primary focus on their effective removal from wastewater. Microalgae offer wastewater purification potential across diverse sources and capitalize on wastewater as a growth matrix, yielding valuable bioproducts, biomaterials, and bioenergy. Their versatility allows them to thrive in various wastewaters, facilitating effective contaminant removal. This study also investigates the application of microalgae in decentralized water treatment systems (DWTSs), where the decentralized nature of these systems proves advantageous in addressing heavy metal contaminants directly at the point of generation or use. This approach holds particular significance in regions where centralized systems face obstacles due to geographical constraints, inadequate infrastructure, or financial limitations. DWTSs not only provide a decentralized solution for heavy metals removal but also prove advantageous in disaster relief scenarios and rapidly growing urban areas.
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DOI: 10.3390/w16050718
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