Research Progress on Degradation of PPCPs by Micro-Algae

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) is currently one of the most concerned new pollutions. PPCPs is a very large system, including antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, lipid lowering drugs, musk and hormones, etc. Up to now, more than 3000 kinds of drugs have been developed, and the annual output of raw materials reaches 2 × 10⁶ tons; similarly, known PPCPs also reached thousands of species, and raw materials annual output reaches 1 × 10⁶ tons annually. In this paper the source and emission of PPCPs in municipal wastewater are summarized as well as an overview of traditional reduction theory, technology and advanced treatment process of PPCPs, Furthermore, the paper highlights the research results and progress of new technology for PPCPs removal by algae and aquatic algae, which provides a new idea for the removal of PPCPs. Finally, the paper proposes an ongoing research of algae-based PPCPs removal process in the future.