Microalgae for Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery: Pathways to a Circular Bioeconomy

Microalgae offer a promising, nature-based approach to treating wastewater while recovering valuable resources from waste streams. Through photosynthesis and nutrient assimilation, microalgae can remove organic matter, heavy metals, and emerging pollutants while contributing to carbon capture. The resulting biomass can be converted into biofuels, biofertilizers, animal feed ingredients, biostimulants, pigments, and other high-value bioproducts. By linking pollution control with resource recovery, microalgal systems support circular bioeconomy models that reduce waste, lower environmental impacts, and create new value from municipal, agricultural, and industrial effluents. Continued advances in cultivation systems, algal-bacterial consortia, harvesting methods, and life cycle assessment are helping move microalgae-based wastewater treatment toward scalable and sustainable implementation. Microalgae for Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery: Pathways to a Circular Bioeconomy explores how microalgae can be used to treat wastewater while recovering valuable resources. It highlights pathways for integrating microalgal technologies into circular bioeconomy systems that reduce pollution, support sustainability, and create value from waste streams. Covering topics such as algal-bacterial interactions, life cycle analysis, and wastewater valorization, this book is an excellent resource for environmental scientists, wastewater treatment professionals, bioprocess engineers, environmental engineers, biotechnology researchers, and more.