Environmental impacts and imperative technologies towards sustainable treatment of aquaculture wastewater: A review

Aquaculture activities surge tremendously worldwide and intensively shifted the landscape of food consuming across the globe. As the fish catch production from natural environment has reached its limit, the public has begun to rely on farmed aquatic products for continuity of protein sources. The aquaculture industry is currently dominated by Asia and has evolved into multiple configurations to increase fish production. Nonetheless, the constituent in aquaculture wastewater (mainly from fish feed) and other pharmaceutical substances have raised public concern as those constituents are potent to jeopardize surrounding environment when released into the ecosystem. In order to minimize the impact of aquaculture wastewater, rigorous researches have been proposed and conducted to effectively treat aquaculture effluent. A thorough treatment mechanisms have been covered, of which the recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) is the most extensively implemented, other technologies introduced include biological, physical and chemical treatments. This review covers an in-depth analysis of these technologies, including their pros and cons, treatment efficacies and process intensifications. Bioreactor, bio-floc, wetlands and phytoremediation are among the biological treatment methods revealed in the discussion, while the physiochemical section encompassed an overview of adsorption, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and membranes technologies. Future recommendations are proposed in terms of aquaculture regulations to ensure sustainable aquaculture development.