Pollutant removal-oriented yeast biomass production from high-organic-strength industrial wastewater: A review

• Pollutant removal-oriented yeast SCP production processes offer more choices.
• Highly adaptive yeast isolates replace commercial SCP producers.
• Yeasts degrade biodegradable organic substances and many xenobiotics.
• It reviews the biocontrol in yeast system according to molecular information.

Microbial single-cell-protein (SCP) production from high-organic-strength industrial wastewaters is considered an attractive method for both wastewater purification and resource utilization. In the last two decades, pollutant removal-oriented yeast SCP production processes, i.e., yeast treatment processes, have attracted a great deal of attention from a variety of research groups worldwide. Different from conventional SCP production processes, yeast treatment processes are characterized by higher pollutant removal rates, lower production costs, highly adaptive yeast isolates from nature, no excess nutrient supplements, and are performed under non-sterile conditions. Furthermore, yeast treatment processes are similar to bacteria-dominated conventional activated sludge processes, which offer more choices for yeast SCP production and industrial wastewater treatment. This review discusses why highly adaptive yeast species isolated from nature are used in the yeast treatment process rather than commercial SCP producers. It also describes the application of yeast treatment processes for treating high-carboxyhydrate, oil-rich and high-salinity industrial wastewater, focusing primarily on high-strength biodegradable organic substances, which usually account for the major fraction of biochemical oxygen demand. Also discussed is the biodegradation of xenobiotics, such as color (including dye and pigment) and toxic substances (including phenols, chlorophenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.), present in industrial wastewater. Based on molecular information of yeast community structures and their regulation in yeast treatment systems, we also discuss how to maintain efficient yeast species in yeast biomass and how to control bacterial and mold proliferation in yeast treatment systems.