Potential of biosorption technology

Abstract

Heavy metal removal from inorganic effluent can be achieved by conventional treatment such as chemical precipitation, ion exchane or flotation, however each treatment has its limitation. Recently, sorption, namely biosorption has become one of the alternative treatments. Basically, sorption is a mass transfer process by which a substance is transferred from the liquid phase to the surface of a solid, and substance becomes bound by physical and/or chemical interactions. Due to large surface area, high sorption capacity and surface reactivity of sorbents, sorption can be utilized as low-cost alternative to conventional processes. For example, materials locally available in large quantities such as natural materials, living or dead biomass, agricultural waste or industrial byproducta can be used as biosorbents with quite little processing. This chapter discusses the significance of the heavy metal removal from waste streams and provides brief oveview of the potential of biosorbents and biosorption technology. Considered are various aspects of utilization of microbial and plant derived biomass in connection with biosorption and the possibility of exploiting such material for heavy metal removal form solutions. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.