Conventional biological
wastewater treatment generates large amounts of low value bacterial biomass. The treatment and disposal of this excess bacterial biomass, also known as
waste activated sludge, accounts for about 40& 60% of the
wastewater treatment plant operation cost. A different form of
biomass with a higher value could significantly change the
economics of wastewater treatment. Fungi could offer this benefit over bacteria in
wastewater treatment processes. The
biomass produced during
fungal wastewater treatment has, potentially, a much higher value than that from the bacterial activated sludge process. The fungi can be used to derive valuable biochemicals and can also be used as a protein source. Various high-value biochemicals are produced by commercial cultivation of fungi under aseptic conditions using expensive substrates.Food-processing wastewater is an attractive alternative as a source of low-cost organic matter and nutrients to produce fungi with concomitant wastewater purification. This review summarizes various findings in
fungal wastewater treatment, particularly focusing on byproduct recovery during wastewater treatment. This review also provides an overview on performance of
fungal treatment systems under various operational conditions. Important factors such as pH, temperature, hydraulic and solids retention time, nonaxenic and axenic operation, and others that affect the
fungal treatment system are discussed. Moreover, certain important practical issues such as bacterial contamination under nonaseptic operation are also covered. The goal of the review paper is to evaluate the feasibility of cultivating fungi during
wastewater treatment for deriving valuable biochemicals.
Relevant Topics in General Science