Phycoremediation of industrial wastewater: challenges and prospects

Abstract The discharge of wastewater into the environment before treatment is harmful and has high pollution potential that includes eutrophication potential, global warming potential, and toxicity-related impacts. Algae have been utilized to various applications from fuels to wastewater treatment. Potential applications of phycoremediation have prompted laboratories to strengthen the development of algal-based technologies for better exploitation of their bioremediation potential and by-product generation ability. Many species of algae have been studied and utilized for their role in wastewater treatment. Certain technological drawbacks need to be addressed to manage the limitations of algae for industrial usage. This chapter focuses on the state-of-the-art applications of microalgae for wastewater remediation. Many challenges related to algal technology have also been demonstrated like upstream and biomass utilization challenges. Improvements in algae technology to cope up with the limitations and prospects of algae technology are explained. It is suggested that as algae represent the base of food pyramids their deployment needs to be an integral part of wastewater remediation in the global scenario.