Removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes using microalgae-based wastewater treatment system: A bibliometric review and mechanism analysis
Gasana Zachee, Alexis Kayiranga, Jean Claude Nizeyimana, Shaohua Tian, Justin Rugema, Lelan You, Xu Huang, Jian‐Qiang Su
Abstract
Environmental problems caused by the overuse of antibiotics have attracted more and more attention. This study aims at uncovering the role of microalgae in removing antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater based on searching 134 publications on Web of Science databases (2014-01-01 to 2024-01-01). The results showed that there was an enormous rise in the total number of publications which stem from international cooperation with China, the United States, and India at its core. Most of them published in interdisciplinary journals such as Bioresource Technology, Journal of Hazardous Materials, and Science of the Total Environment, indicating that both theoretical research and technical application are emphasized. Co-occurrence network analysis shows that biodegradation, biosorption , and photodegradation are main removal mechanisms of antibiotics. Focusing on three removal mechanisms, the performance of different algae and the removal rate of different antibiotics were discussed in depth. Further, the evolution of resistance genes in microalgae-based systems was systematically reviewed. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives were proposed for the application of microalgae-based systems into antibiotics contaminated wastewater. Potentially, this synthesis will lead to a better understanding of microalgae-based wastewater systems as sustainable systems that meet the minimal requirements for modernized wastewater treatment systems.