A comprehensive review on eco-toxicity and biodegradation of phenolics: Recent progress and future outlook

The profound growth and development of industrial segments discharge enormous quantities of phenolic pollutants into the aquatic environment. Phenolic compounds are priority pollutants and their presence in the water system causes severe hazards to human health and many other living creatures. Thus, the removal of such toxic pollutants has gained a lot of attention in the past few decades. Biodegradation is a sustainable and efficient method for the removal of phenolic pollutants from the aquatic environment. Though microbial degradation of phenolic pollutants is well documented, enzymatic metabolic pathways, co-metabolic biodegradation, the use of sequential bioreactors, and the treatment of real-world…