Mechanism regulation, production and potential of high value substances in the wastewater treatment by immobilized photosynthetic bacteria: A review

Photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) based wastewater treatment has been regarded as an environmental-friendly and sustainable technique for environmental restoration and bioresource recovery. Immobilized PSB in wastewater systems offers permeable microenvironments for various microorganisms to spread evenly on the surface or inside and successfully shields PSB from outside interference to improve their bioavailability, thus effectively resolving the PSB's salient issues including inadequate sedimentation, lost biomass, etc. Various metabolic pathways, including materials conversion, energy cycle, and the synthesis of high-value substances in PSB are detailed; metabolic properties, influencing factors and regulations, and the application bottleneck of PSB immobilization are systematically described; recent attempts for PSB immobilization to treat emerging pollutants are summarized. This attempts to provide references for the development of microbial immobilization in applications for wastewater treatment recycling.