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Corresponding Author

Hasan M. Agha

Authors ORCID

Hasan M. Agha: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6637-2072

Abstract

Bacterial biomass has emerged as a versatile material with strong potential in environmental, material, and biotechnological applications, as well as broader uses such as bioplastics, packaging materials, and agricultural systems, owing to its rapid growth, controllable production, and surface chemistry enriched with carboxyl, hydroxyl, amino, phosphate, sulfate, and sulfhydryl groups. These features enable multiple interaction mechanisms, including electrostatic attraction, ion exchange, surface complexation, hydrogen bonding, and π –π interactions, supporting applications in pollutant removal, wastewater treatment, composite development, and bioenergy systems. Bacterial biomass can be sourced from natural environments, industrial fermentation, and waste streams, particularly activated sludge, making it compatible with circular economy approaches. Quantitatively, bacterial biomass exhibits adsorption capacities up to ∼210 mg/g, while engineered biohybrid composites can exceed 600 mg/g, with adsorption behavior commonly described by Langmuir/Freundlich isotherms and pseudo-second-order kinetics. Compared with algal, fungal, and lignocellulosic biomass, bacterial biomass offers high surface reactivity and controlled production, although challenges related to stability, variability, separation, regeneration, mass transfer limitations, and large-scale processing remain critical. Recent advances in surface modification, immobilization, composite engineering, bioprocess optimization, including chitosan-bacterial biomass biocomposites, silica-bacterial biomass hybrids, and carbonized bacterial biomass (biochar), and TEA/LCA provide promising pathways toward practical implementation. Overall, bacterial biomass should be viewed not only as a low-cost biological residue but also as a tunable platform for next-generation renewable functional materials.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.70176/3007-973X.1074

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