Role of ecological floating beds in nutrients removal from polluted surface water: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of the remediation of polluted water via Ecological Floating Beds (EFBs) is essential, as they are a popular bioremediation technology. The present study intends to identify the existing knowledge on the application of EFBs for nutrient pollutants removal and to provide insights to enhance the efficiency of EFBs performance. By following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, 55 articles were retained after an automatic, manual screening and eligibility assessment. The selected articles were subjected to descriptive analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis using Biblioshiny R and VOSviewer software to identify knowledge in terms of pollutant type, removal mechanism, and performance enhancement means. Accordingly, the key knowledge identified is (1) the main nutrient pollutants removed by EFBs are nitrogen and phosphorous, (2) the promising pathways of nutrient removal are microbial degradation and plant uptake, (3) Proteobacteria is the most abundant bacterial phyla that are involved in nitrogen removal via denitrification (4) the performance of EFBs can be enhanced with the addition of various materials, whereas Zeolite showed profound effects in nutrient removal. The knowledge identified in this study would serve as a source for scholars and many stakeholders who are interested in implementing EFBs for pollution remediation.