With the advent of global industrialisation and adaptation of smart life there is rise in anthropogenic pollution especially in water. Remediation of the pollutants (such as metals, and dyes) present in industrial effluents is possible via microbes and algae present in the environment. Microbes are used in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) for remediation of various organic and inorganic pollutants. However, for industrial scale application coupling the MFCs with photocatalytic and photoelectric fuel cell has a potential in improving the output of power. It can also be used for remediation of pollutants more expeditiously, conserving fossil fuels, cleaning environment, hence making the coupled hybrid fuel cell to run economically. Furthermore, such MFC inbuilt with algae in living or powder form give additional value addition products like biofuel, polysaccharides, biopolymers, and polyhydroxy alkanoates etc. This review provides bird’s eye view on the removal of environmental pollutants by different biological sources like bacteria and algae. The article is focussed on diatoms as potential algae since they are rich source of crude oil and high value added products in a hybrid photocatalytic MFC. It also covers bottle necks, challenges and future in this field of research.

随着全球工业化的出现和智能生活的适应，人为污染尤其是水污染有所增加。通过环境中存在的微生物和藻类，可以修复工业废水中存在的污染物（例如金属和染料）。微生物用于微生物燃料电池 (MFC) 以修复各种有机和无机污染物。然而，对于工业规模应用，将 MFC 与光催化和光电燃料电池相结合具有提高功率输出的潜力。它还可以更快速地修复污染物，节约化石燃料，清洁环境，从而使耦合混合燃料电池更经济地运行。此外，这种内置藻类的活体或粉末形式的 MFC 提供了额外的增值产品，如生物燃料、多糖、生物聚合物和多羟基链烷酸酯等。这篇综述提供了对不同生物来源（如细菌和藻类）去除环境污染物的鸟瞰图。这篇文章的重点是硅藻作为潜在的藻类，因为它们是混合光催化 MFC 中原油和高附加值产品的丰富来源。它还涵盖了该研究领域的瓶颈、挑战和未来。