Review reveals microbial consortia degrade pharmaceutical residues in wastewater, highlighting challenges in scaling biological treatment from laboratories to full-scale plants.
Key Points
To review microbial bioremediation approaches for degrading pharmaceutical residues in wastewater, evaluating individual strains, microbial consortia, operational parameters, and real-world implementation challenges.
Synthesized literature on single-strain and consortium-based bacterial, fungal, and microalgae systems used to degrade pharmaceutical contaminants.
Evaluated operational performance factors—including pH, temperature, nutrients, and contact time—and surveyed field translation data from municipal, hospital, and industrial wastewaters, notably in African settings.
Single strains such as Achromobacter and specialized bacteria substantially transform specific targets like ibuprofen and ciprofloxacin, while white-rot fungi degrade broader pharmaceutical classes.
Combined bacterial–fungal and microalgae–bacteria consortia enhance contaminant elimination through complementary metabolic pathways, though true metabolic degradation must be distinguished from non-degradative sorption.
Field translation remains hindered by matrix complexity in municipal and hospital effluents, with pronounced gaps identified in regional monitoring and process scale-up.