Removal of antibiotics from wastewater and its problematic effects on microbial communities by bioelectrochemical technology: Current knowledge and future perspectives

Abstract

In this review, antibiotics are considered an emerging pollutant that has drawn worldwide attention in recent years. Therefore, the effective removal of antibiotic contaminants has become a hot issue in the field of environmental research. Most antibiotics applied to humans eventually enter municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs), because there are no appropriate commercially available pretreatment techniques. However, increasing anthropogenic activities, the high demand for animal-protein in developing countries as a nutritional alternative, and the extensive usage of antibiotics are mainly responsible for the persistence of antibiotic pollutants. One of the serious concerns regarding the presence of antibiotics in water and their potential role in exacerbating the emergence of antibiotics-resistance bacteria (ARB) and antibiotics-resistance genes (ARGs). In recent years, bioelectrochemical technologies are found promising for suppressing antibiotic contaminants through microbial metabolism and electrochemical redox reactions. Therefore, this review provides up-to-date insight research on bioelectrochemical systems (BESs), which improves the removal of the antibiotic in an efficient way. The focus of this review has been on the environmental sources of antibiotics, their health effects and possible degradation pathways, bacterial-antibiotics resistance mechanisms, and treatment of antibiotic-contained water using BES technology.