title: Is biosorption suitable for decontamination of metal-bearing wastewaters? A critical review on the state-of-the-art of biosorption processes and future directions.
abstract: For the past few decades, biosorption has been widely investigated for the removal of different contaminants in aqueous media. A number of biomasses of different genre have been identified to possess good biosorption capacity. Insights into biosorption mechanisms have been provided by various researchers in order to develop a fundamental scientific understanding of the biosorption process. However, biosorption has not been employed widely for its large-scale commercial applications. The key factors that affect the growth and evolution of biosorption as a practical technology for decontamination of wastewaters include, (1) lack of investigations on multi-component solutions and wastewaters with complex matrix effects, (2) incomplete understanding of physico-chemical characteristics of biomasses of different types, (3) lack of studies to improve the performance of biosorbents through surface functionalization, and (4) non-integration of biosorption in wastewater/water treatment plants. This critical review aims to identify and discuss the practical limitations of biosorption and provide future research directions to make biosorption a technologically viable process with emphasis on selection and modification of biomasses to suit desired treatment applications, identify appropriate operation modes for large-scale applications of biosorption, and perform techno-economic evaluation of overall biosorption processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India. Electronic address: cevijay@iitm.ac.in.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vijayaraghavan
authors.affiliation: Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore. Electronic address: ceerbala@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D003666:Decontamination; D006801:Humans; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000737:chemistry*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biosorption; Green roof; Metals; Packed column; Wastewater treatment; Water quality