Use of Low Cost Adsorbents for the Remediation of Heavy Metals from Waste Water

Abstract: – The problem of water pollution is alarming due to various anthropogenic activities. Heavy metals are being released in the water bodies causing heavy metal pollution and also accumulate in the food chain and ultimately affecting human health. Various activities like manufacturing of fertilizers, industrialization, mining, electroplating, smelters etc are responsible for the release of heavy metals in the water bodies. Various heavy metals include Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, and metalloids like arsenic in drinking water causes harmful effects on human health like allergies, hyper pigmentation, skin cancer, neurological disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, etc. Therefore there is a need to develop and focus on methods to remove heavy metals from the waste water using techniques which are environment friendly, cost-effective and easily available in nature. Bioadsorbents have come up as one of the promising substitute for heavy metal removal because it is readily available in nature and most importantly the waste residues from agricultural activities is utilized in the manufacturing of bioadsorbent for heavy metal ion removal. Various agricultural residues used to remove metal ions are rice husk, sawdust, peanut husk, groundnut husk, wheat bran, sugarcane bagasse, pine needle, salseed husk, coconut coir, cotton stalks etc. The main objective of this paper is to study about bio-adsorbents derived from agricultural wastes and their applications to remove metal ions from waste water

Keywords: Adsorption, Heavy metal, Bioadsrobents, Agricultural by-products, Waste water.

I. INTRODUCTION he availability and quality of drinking water has a huge impact on people’s life especially in the rural and remote areas which is essential for a healthy living (Gupta et. al., 2006). Water resources all over the world have been severely affected by human activities leading to water quality deterioration and also shortage in potable supply of water (Tripathi et al.,2015).Water pollution especially due to heavy metals and minerals in the waste water is becoming a severe problem in India (Rashmi et al.,2013). Major contributing industries which release heavy metals are mining, metal processing, tanneries, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, organic chemicals, rubber and plastics, lumber and wood products (Malil et al 2004). From the industrial sites these heavy metals contaminate the downstream water bodies through run off. Therefore it is essential to remove themfrom waste water before they are discharged in a water body to prevent various health hazards as they are toxic and carcinogenic in nature (Srivastava et al., 2006).
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