Wastewater treatment employs several techniques for removal of various contaminants, which are released as by-products of agricultural practices, industrial operations and human waste, such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons and organic substances. Microbes play a significant role in the elimination of these hazardous substances and the process involved is called bioremediation. Bioremediation is a novel and promising technology and has several advantages over conventional techniques for waste removal. It is flexible, cost-effective and ecofriendly, and thus holds great potential for waste water treatment. A diversity of microbial organisms, like algae, fungi, yeast and bacteria, perform methylation and have the ability to modify and detoxify pollutants. This review provides a comprehensive overview of microbial approaches employed in wastewater treatment, including physical, chemical, biological methods and membrane bioreactors. Microbial technologies employed are advanced oxidation, biodegradation and activated sludge. Despite these advancements, challenges remain. These limitations include inconsistent efficiency across varying environmental conditions, difficulties in scaling up from lab to field applications, and challenges in maintaining active microbial populations. The current article explains different strategies employed for biodegradation, along with their efficacy, recent developments and challenges faced in implementation and commercialization of biodegradation practices.
Chatterji et al. (Mon,) studied this question.