Potential of biochar for clean-up of heavy metal contaminated soil and water

Abstract

Heavy metals exist in the environment naturally aside those due to anthropogenic impact. These metals are removed from effluents and water using different techniques like adsorption, oxidation/reduction, chemical precipitation, membrane separation, filtration and ion exchange. Biosorption is very effective because it is highly renewed naturally, is cheap, and can remove metals greatly because the pollutant can be recovered either by desorbing or incinerating the biomass. Therefore, this work aims to identify some biochars utilized as adsorbents to remove lead, chromium, mercury and copper in soil and water, according to different researchers. In conclusion adsorption is a very effective method to remove or recover heavy metals from the environment. These biochars can be used in place of commercial activated charcoal because, besides being cheap, they are very effective treatment in removing metal ions based on wastewater discharge standards.