The dual roles of phycoremediation of wet market wastewater for nutrients and heavy metals removal and microalgae biomass production

Wastewater generated from fresh, vegetables and meat shops contains high concentrations of nutrients, COD, BOD and TSS. Therefore, the direct discharge of wet market wastewater into natural water may increase the pollution level. Wet market wastewater is rich with nutrients necessary for microalgae growth. Therefore, it represent a superlative environment for producing high quantity of microalgae biomass which have several applications in aquaculture, human nutrition and pharmaceutical industries. Phycoremediation is a process with high potential for the treatment wastewater and removal of nutrients and heavy metals as well as the production of microalgae biomass. However, the main challenges for the phycoremediation technology lie in the wastewater composition, microalgae species, and the competition process between the microalgae strain and the indigenous organisms as well as final utilization of biomass yield. The present review discusses the dual roles of phycoremediation for nutrients and heavy metals removal and microalgae biomass production. The microbiological aspects of phycoremediation, mechanism for heavy metals removal from wastewater, as well as factors affecting wastewater treatment are reviewed. It appears that phycoremediation plays an important role in the treatment of wastewater and production of microalgae biomass.