Critical perspective on the elimination of emerging contaminants from industrial wastewater via microbial electrochemical technologies

Industrial water pollution originating from various industries like textile, dairy, oil, and petrochemical industries, etc. is a huge concern globally and has led to devastating effects on the environment due to the release of refractory emerging contaminants (ECs). These ECs of concern have attracted wide devotion from the scientific community due to their recalcitrant nature and disastrous effects on plants, aquatic life forms, and humans. In this regard, conventional wastewater treatment technologies such as coagulation, flocculation, membrane technologies, electrocoagulation, and other biological technologies like sequencing batch reactor, anaerobic up-flow sludge blanket reactor, etc., are inefficient in removing ECs from the industrial effluent, while conventional advanced oxidation processes incur high cost due to the extensive requirement of energy for the degradation of ECs. To overcome this issue, microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) can be employed. For instance, METs have shown promising results in the degradation of various ECs, such as microbial fuel cells, which have shown nearly 92% to 98% removal of sulfamethoxazole with simultaneous power recovery. Alizarin yellow R, nitrobenzene, and Congo red were degraded by microbial electrolysis cells with removal efficiency in the range of 88% to 98%, demonstrating their superiority in the elimination of trace contaminants. Similarly, almost 100% mineralization of pyraclostrobin was noticed for the bio-electro-Fenton process, showing the elevated potential of these neoteric technologies for the remediation of recalcitrant pollutants. Thus, the current review article aims to critically analyze the intervention of METs for the elimination of ECs from industrial wastewater. Emerging contaminants (ECs) originating from various industrial effluents is a matter of concern globally owing to their recalcitrant nature. Traditional treatment technologies are unsuitable for the degradation of ECs, resulting to their occurrence in the ecosystem. This review article provides an overview of how microbial electrochemical technologies can be utilized as a green solution to remove these ECs. image