Plants (Oct 2021)

Extremophilic Microalgae <i>Galdieria</i> Gen. for Urban Wastewater Treatment: Current State, the Case of “POWER” System, and Future Prospects

  • Maria Rosa di Cicco,
  • Manuela Iovinella,
  • Maria Palmieri,
  • Carmine Lubritto,
  • Claudia Ciniglia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112343
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 11
p. 2343

Abstract

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Over the past decades, wastewater research has increasingly focused on the use of microalgae as a tool to remove contaminants, entrapping nutrients, and whose biomass could provide both material and energy resources. This review covers the advances in the emerging research on the use in wastewater sector of thermoacidophilic, low-lipid microalgae of the genus Galdieria, which exhibit high content of protein, reserve carbohydrates, and other potentially extractable high-value compounds. The natural tolerance of Galdieria for high toxic environments and hot climates recently made it a key player in a single-step process for municipal wastewater treatment, biomass cultivation and production of energetic compounds using hydrothermal liquefaction. In this system developed in New Mexico, Galdieria proved to be a highly performing organism, able to restore the composition of the effluent to the standards required by the current legislation for the discharge of treated wastewater. Future research efforts should focus on the implementation, in the context of wastewater treatment, of more energetically efficient cultivation systems, potentially capable of generating water with increasingly higher purity levels.

Keywords