Conventional and non-conventional adsorbents for wastewater treatment

Adsorption techniques are widely used to remove certain classes of pollutants from waters, especially those that are not easily biodegradable. Dyes represent one of the problematic groups. Currently, a combination of biological treatment and adsorption on activated carbon is becoming more common for removal of dyes from wastewater. Although commercial activated carbon is a preferred sorbent for color removal, its widespread use is restricted due to high cost. As such, alternative non-conventional sorbents have been investigated. It is well-known that natural materials, waste materials from industry and agriculture and biosorbents can be obtained and employed as inexpensive sorbents. In this review, an extensive list of sorbent literature has been compiled. The review (i) presents a critical analysis of these materials; (ii) describes their characteristics, advantages and limitations; and (iii) discusses various mechanisms involved. It is evident from a literature survey of about 210 recent papers that low-cost sorbents have demonstrated outstanding removal capabilities for certain dyes. In particular, chitosan might be a promising adsorbent for environmental and purification purposes. Show more

In this article, the use of low-cost adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from solution has been reviewed. Adsorption techniques are widely used to remove certain classes of pollutants from waters, especially those which are not easily biodegradable. The removal of MB, as a pollutant, from waste waters of textile, paper, printing and other industries has been addressed by the researchers. Currently, a combination of biological treatment and adsorption on activated carbon is becoming more common for removal of dyes from wastewater. Although commercial activated carbon is a preferred adsorbent for color removal, its widespread use is restricted due to its relatively high cost which led to the researches on alternative non-conventional and low-cost adsorbents. The purpose of this review article is to organize the scattered available information on various aspects on a wide range of potentially low-cost adsorbents for MB removal. These include agricultural wastes, industrial solid wastes, biomass, clays minerals and zeolites. Agricultural waste materials being highly efficient, low cost and renewable source of biomass can be exploited for MB remediation. It is evident from a literature survey of about 185 recently published papers that low-cost adsorbents have demonstrated outstanding removal capabilities for MB. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Show more

In this article, the technical feasibility of various low-cost adsorbents for heavy metal removal from contaminated water has been reviewed. Instead of using commercial activated carbon, researchers have worked on inexpensive materials, such as chitosan, zeolites, and other adsorbents, which have high adsorption capacity and are locally available. The results of their removal performance are compared to that of activated carbon and are presented in this study. It is evident from our literature survey of about 100 papers that low-cost adsorbents have demonstrated outstanding removal capabilities for certain metal ions as compared to activated carbon. Adsorbents that stand out for high adsorption capacities are chitosan (815, 273, 250 mg/g of Hg(2+), Cr(6+), and Cd(2+), respectively), zeolites (175 and 137 mg/g of Pb(2+) and Cd(2+), respectively), waste slurry (1030, 560, 540 mg/g of Pb(2+), Hg(2+), and Cr(6+), respectively), and lignin (1865 mg/g of Pb(2+)). These adsorbents are suitable for inorganic effluent treatment containing the metal ions mentioned previously. It is important to note that the adsorption capacities of the adsorbents presented in this paper vary, depending on the characteristics of the individual adsorbent, the extent of chemical modifications, and the concentration of adsorbate. Show more