Potential of phytotechnology in wastewater treatments to produce alternative electrical energy: a review

Recently, phytotechnology has gained much attention due to its capability in treating wastewater by biological processes. Phytotechnology is the application of science and engineering to examine environmental problems and provide solutions by the direct use of plants for in situ removal or degradation of contaminants or improving environmental function and quality. This process using bacteria formed in the roots of the plant and it can be applied to treat the wastewater. In this phytotechnology process, it presents the potential for energy generation and comprehensive wastewater treatment in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) system, which in the process utilizes bacteria that can produce alternative electrical energy because of the activity of bacteria which can self-mediate electrons to the anode through contact between the membrane-anode. MFC are expected to be applied to energy-saving wastewater treatments (WWT). The combined of MFC and phytotechnology system have function to degrade organic compunds and remove contaminant contained in wastewater to produce bacterias that come out in the roots and then the bacterias will be used by electrodes to produce electricity. This paper will analyze the advantage and disadvantages of phytotechnology system while used to produce electrical energy by MFC system as hybrid system. Based on the existing research, show that phytotechnology has a lot of advantages. One of the advantages is promising low cost, highly efficient, and renewable energy-producing alternative to conventional wastewater treatments.