Multicomponent biosorption of heavy metals from aqueous solutions: A review

Abstract

Biosorption is the most widely effective, low-cost, and eco-friendly technology for the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewaters. Several biomaterials have been investigated for their potential to sequester heavy metals from aqueous solutions and show good biosorption capacity. Although the industrial effluents contain a mixture of metal ions, most biosorption studies have been carried out to examine the removal of metal ions in a single rather than a multicomponent system. This review highlights the biosorption of heavy metals in binary and ternary systems by various biomaterials reported in literature, focusing on the factors affecting metal uptake. The review covers the applicable adsorption isotherm models used to analyze and predict the equilibrium data in a multicomponent system.