Authors: Dr. Ekata Singh
Abstract: In the environment and the world of heavy metals discharge into water bodies is still a serious environmental and public health issue, especially in areas of heavy industrial activity. Electroplating, metal finishing, mining, tannery, battery, textile and pigment industry wastewater has toxic levels of lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, and mercury. These metals are not biodegradable and are commonly deposited in sediments, biota and food chains, and hence pose a greater environmental risk as well as human risk. Adoption of adsorption is one of the most effective ways to remove heavy metals, and the low concentrations, low cost and economic feasibility of adsorption make it the current best treatment method. The heavy metals are present in industrial effluents, and adsorption can be considered as a treatment strategy with lower cost and renewable adsorbents. The performance of activated carbon, natural minerals, agricultural by-products, biosorbents and new nanostructured materials is evaluated in terms of adsorption capacity, removal mechanism, regeneration and real-world applications. pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, competing ions and surface chemistry are also addressed. There is solid evidence that many of the low-cost adsorbents are capable of metal uptake in laboratory settings, but still, a huge amount of work remains on scaling, regeneration efficiency, stability in complex effluents, and disposal of spent sorbents. A great deal of progress in the future will be to compare results, to have realistic wastewater testing, and to integrate adsorption into circular and resource recovery-based treatment processes.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19478874
