Low-Cost Crop Waste Biosorbent Technology for Removing Toxics and Pollutants from Wastewater

Wastewater pollution is an urgent environmental concern. The negative effects of pollution on both humans and the environment have become a subject of intense discussion. Several techniques have been developed for the removal of pollutants from water. Most of these techniques adopt a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes, which include photo-oxidation, chemical coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, and adsorption. Nevertheless, adsorption is one of the most efficient methods for removal of pollutants from water, offering many economical, technological, and ecological advantages. The search for new low-cost technologies to remove contaminants from aqueous solution will be well embraced. Low-cost adsorbents can be employed to remove recalcitrant compounds from aqueous solution inexpensively and can be effective for removing both organic and inorganic contaminants. Biosorption technology using different biomasses (agro-industrial waste or organic waste that are considered composting material) is a promising alternative for the treatment of effluents that contain pharmaceuticals and heavy metals. These processes have certain advantages from both economic and environmental points of view, such as availability, abundance, the renewable nature of the adsorbent material, their low cost, and ease of operation of the treatment plant. Consequently, it is important to find low-cost alternative materials instead of traditional. Among the different agro-industrial wastes, sugarcane bagasse, cocoa shell, peanut husk, among others, are attractive materials for removing toxic heavy metals and pharmaceutical products from wastewater. To date, several researchers have reported on removal of different pollutants by using sorbents.