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Wastewater-Grown Algal Biomass as Carbon-neutral, Renewable, and Low Water Footprint Feedstock for Clean Energy and Bioplastics

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Growing algae in wastewater offers carbon-neutral biomass production and pollutant removal. However, practical applications of wastewater-grown algal biomass have social acceptability issues in the food and feed industries due to unexpected threats (such as human/animal pathogens and toxins) associated with the wastewater-grown biomass. Therefore, considering the substantial pollutant removal potential of microalgae and the abundance of wastewater as a growth media, alternative bioprocessing routes of the wastewater-grown biomass should be developed. This review highlights some non-food and non-feed applications of wastewater-grown algae biomass.

Recent Findings

Wastewater-grown algal biomass contains high amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids depending upon the composition of wastewater and algal species grown. These three significant metabolites are precursors to bioenergy and biomaterial products such as bioethanol, biogas, and bioplastics. Hydrolysis of the wastewater-grown algal biomass can be easily improved to enhance the microbial fermentation yields to produce bioethanol and biobutanol. Fresh algal biomass, residual biomass, or both can be used as feedstocks in anaerobic digestion/co-digestion to produce biogas. Depending upon the selected species, wastewater-grown algal biomass can also produce biopolymers whose productivity depends on growth conditions, wastewater composition, and biopolymer synthesis method. Enzymatic, eco-friendly chemicals and mechanical approaches used to prepare biopolymers from algal biomass should be optimized for higher yields of biopolymers.

Summary

Although wastewater-grown biomass has acceptability issues, it offers certain environmental benefits, including atmospheric carbon capture, phycoremediation of pollutants, and water recycling. This manuscript highlights the recent progress and emerging trends of wastewater-grown algal biomass as a feedstock with potential applications for fermentation, anaerobic digestion, and bioprocessing to produce clean energy and bioplastics.

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Funding

The authors are thankful to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for supporting their various research projects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Bioengineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, 643000, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Aamer Mehmood

  2. Bioenergy Research Centre, Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Aamer Mehmood, Mahwish Amin, Hafiza Aroosa Malik & Aqib Zafar Khan

  3. School of Engineering and Architecture, University College Cork, Cork, T12 K8AF, Ireland

    Muhammad Nabeel Haider

  4. Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Sana Malik

  5. School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Henan, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Md. Asraful Alam & Jingliang Xu

  6. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, 71491, Saudi Arabia

    Abdulrahman H. Alessa

  7. Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA, 70310, USA

    Raj Boopathy

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  1. Muhammad Aamer Mehmood
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Contributions

M.A.M., M.Amin. M. N. H. prepared the first draft of the manuscript. S.M. and H. A. M. prepared tables and figures. M. A.A., J.X., and A.H.A. reviewed and edited the manuscript. M.A.M., A.Z.K, and R.B. conceptualized the idea, and edited the final version of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and agreed for the submission.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Aamer Mehmood, Aqib Zafar Khan or Raj Boopathy.

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Highlights

• Algae cultivation in wastewater offers biomass production, pollutant removal, and wastewater recycling.

• Industrial utilization of wastewater-grown biomass remains questionable and indeterminate.

• Alternative bioprocessing routes of wastewater-grown biomass should be developed.

• Fermentation of wastewater-grown biomass could be a promising option to produce fuel alcohols.

• Co-digestion of wastewater-grown biomass to biogas and biotransformation to biopolymers needs detailed studies.

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Mehmood, M.A., Amin, M., Haider, M.N. et al. Wastewater-Grown Algal Biomass as Carbon-neutral, Renewable, and Low Water Footprint Feedstock for Clean Energy and Bioplastics. Curr Pollution Rep 10, 172–188 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-024-00294-x

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