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Algae as Miniature Wastewater Scavengers

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Abstract

Anthropogenic activities are accountable for the release of various inorganic and organic substances into the environment leading to severe environmental pollution. Effluents released from various industrial, domestic, and agricultural sources ultimately find their way into water bodies rendering the water unfit for use. There is a pressing need to treat this water in order to meet the prerequisites of the growing human population. The primary and secondary treatment of wastewater removes the settled particles and organic matter providing apparently clear water. The secondary effluvium is although laden with inorganic forms of nitrogen (NO3− – N; NO2− – N; NH4+ – N) and phosphorus (PO43− – P) which causes eutrophication and other indelible issues due to the occurrence of heavy metals and refractory organic substances. Microalgae act as a very significant tool in treatment (tertiary) of wastewater and provide large quantities of invaluable multi-purpose algal biomass. They are very efficient in sequestering inorganic nutrients from wastewaters due to their high productivity rate and lesser space requirements compared to other terrestrial plants. Their property of sequestering toxic substances and heavy metals does not lead to the secondary pollution. Thus microalgae act as scavengers of the environment removing the pollutants from the wastewater and making it reusable at lower investments.

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Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Chairperson, Department of Botany, Punjab University, Chandigarh for providing internet access to search the relevant literature and for the necessary laboratory facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Afreen J. Lolu, Amrik S. Ahluwalia & Malkiat C. Sidhu

  2. Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Zafar A. Reshi

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  1. Afreen J. Lolu
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  2. Amrik S. Ahluwalia
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  3. Malkiat C. Sidhu
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  4. Zafar A. Reshi
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Correspondence to Afreen J. Lolu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Sachin Kumar Mandotra

  2. Department of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Atul Kumar Upadhyay

  3. Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Chandigarh, India

    Amrik Singh Ahluwalia

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Lolu, A.J., Ahluwalia, A.S., Sidhu, M.C., Reshi, Z.A. (2021). Algae as Miniature Wastewater Scavengers. In: Mandotra, S.K., Upadhyay, A.K., Ahluwalia, A.S. (eds) Algae. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7518-1_5

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