CO₂ mitigation and phycoremediation of industrial flue gas and wastewater via microalgae-bacteria consortium: Possibilities and challenges

Climate change due to increasing CO₂ emissions from industries with severe environmental pollution from wastewater due to rising global population and production plants. Current approaches in treating wastewater and flue gases are expensive processes requiring high operating costs. Hence, efficient strategies to utilize flue gases and simultaneously treat wastewater is in desperate need to tackle the current situation. One of the potential solutions is to cultivate microalgae-bacteria consortium using industrial flue gas and wastewater, where the nutrients and organic matters within flue gas and wastewater are consumed for the growth of microalgae-bacteria consortium. The production of biomass from the consortium can be further transformed into sources of biofuel, valuable metabolites and animal feed. This review explores the mechanisms of CO₂ mitigation and phycoremediation through microalgae-bacteria consortium along with possible future prospects.