Omics in industrial wastewater treatment

The scientific revolution in omics technologies has paved the way for emerging technologies in wastewater treatment. These approaches have been adopted to investigate the metabolic potential, diversity, and spatiotemporal dynamics of microorganisms in wastewater systems. The prokaryotic, eukaryotic diversity can be utilized in industrial wastewater systems for higher performance. Industrial wastewater contains high concentrations of organic and inorganic pollutants, exerting a huge pressure on the environment. The adverse effects on biodiversity, soil, natural water bodies, and groundwater emphasizes the urgent need for proper wastewater treatment techniques prior to its disposal to the environment. Wastewater treatment via omics technologies offers advantages namely enhanced nutrient removal, cost reduction, wide applicability, the possibility of biofuel/bioenergy production, etc. The availability of diverse microbial communities can be expected in biological wastewater treatment plants, and they possess different metabolic capabilities which could be harnessed in the wastewater treatment process. Microorganisms can play a key role in the performance optimization of wastewater treatment plants. Coupling microalgae and cyanobacteria, production of microbes-based nanomaterials, use of bacterial and algae symbiotic systems for wastewater treatment have been recognized as promising techniques in biological wastewater treatment. The chapter focusses on the important aspects of omics, applications, limitations, challenges, and futuristic approaches in omics technologies related to industrial wastewater treatment.