Insight into integration of photocatalytic and microbial wastewater treatment technologies for recalcitrant organic pollutants: From sequential to simultaneous reactions

The more and more stringent environmental standards for recalcitrant organic pollutants pushed forward the development of integration of photocatalytic and microbial wastewater treatment technologies. The past studies proposed mainly two typical integration ways: a) Independent sequence of photocatalysis and biodegradation (ISPB) conducting the sequential reactions; b) Intimate coupling of photocatalysis and biodegradation (ICPB) conducting the simultaneous reactions. Although ICPB has received more attraction recently due to its novelty, ISPB gives an edge in certain cases. The article reviews the state-of-the-art ISPB and ICPB studies to comprehensively compare the two systems. The strengths and weaknesses of ISPB and ICPB regarding the treatment efficiency, cost, toxicity endurance and flexibility are contradistinguished. The reactor set-ups, photocatalysts, microbial characteristics of ISPB and ICPB are summarized. The applications for different kinds of recalcitrant compounds are elaborated to give a holistic view of the removal efficiencies and transformation pathways by the two technologies. Currently, in-depth understandings about the interference among mixed pollutants, co-existing components and key parameters in realistic wastewater are urgently needed. The long-term and large-scale application cases of the integration technologies are still rare. Overall, we conclude that both ISPB and ICPB technologies are reaching maturity while challenges still exist for two systems especially regarding the reliability, economy and generalization for realistic wastewater treatment plants. Future research should not only manage to reduce the cost and energy consumption by upgrading reactors and developing novel catalysts, but also attach importance to the cocktail effects of wastewater during the sequential or simultaneous photocatalysis and biodegradation.