Microalgae-bacteria consortium for wastewater treatment and biomass production

The diversity of microalgae and bacteria allows them to form a complementary consortium for efficient wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery. This review highlights the potential of wastewater-derived microalgal biomass as a renewable feedstock for producing animal feed, biofertilisers, biofuel, and many valuable biochemicals. Data corroborated from this review shows that microalgae and bacteria can thrive in many environments. Microalgae are especially effective at utilising nutrients from the water as they grow. This review also consolidates the current understanding of microalgae characteristics and their interactions with bacteria in a consortium system. Recent studies on the performance of only microalgae and microalgae-bacteria wastewater treatment are compared and discussed to establish a research roadmap for practical implementation of the consortium systems for various wastewaters (domestic, industrial, agro-industrial, and landfill leachate wastewater). In comparison to the pure microalgae system, the consortium system has a higher removal efficiency of up to 15% and shorter treatment time. Additionally, this review addresses a variety of possibilities for biomass application after wastewater treatment. [Display omitted] •Microalgae are highly diverse thus can complement bacteria in a consortium system.•Recent examples show the potential of microalgae-bacteria for nutrient removal.•Efficacy of pure and consortium systems for wastewater treatment is compared.•Microalgae-bacteria consortium can be used for a range of wastewater.•Strategies to improve microalgae-bacteria consortium are discussed.