Microalgal bioremediation of heavy metal pollution in water: Recent advances, challenges, and prospects

With the rapid economy development and population surge, the water resources available for direct use on the earth have been in shortage. Therefore, water pollution remediation inevitably becomes the focus of global attention. Aside from their capacity to fix and effectively control the emission of carbon dioxide thus achieve negative carbon emission, microalgae and its products modified by genetic engineering and other technologies also have a broad prospect in sewage treatment such as efficiently removing all kinds of pollutants in water and producing high-quality biofuels after use. Therefore, research on these organisms has gradually deepened in recent years. This paper summarizes the bioremediation mechanism of heavy metal ions in water by using microalgae and their modified products. The relevant research progresses since 2015 are critically reviewed and discussed. Challenges and prospects are also put forward for their industrial implementation.