Current Updates and Perspectives of Biosorption Technology: an Alternative for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater

Several municipal, industrial, and agricultural activities use and release heavy metals containing wastewater into the environment. These mixtures of heavy metals pose various hazardous and toxic effects on the environment and human health. Biosorption is a reliable and proven technology for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. In the last decades, however, biosorption has been extensively studied for the remediation of contaminated surface water, groundwater and wastewater. The general concepts and mechanism of heavy metal uptake from different water environments are illustrated in this review. Besides, a more detailed discussion has been presented for the different types of biosorbents, namely microbial cells (fungi, bacteria, and algae) and organic/agricultural waste-based sorbents, which show great potential for heavy metals sequestration when compared to commercially available sorbent materials. The process parameters affecting the biosorption performance and kinetics have also been reviewed. Additionally, perspectives of biosorption as a heavy metal recovery technology are presented, including possibilities for online monitoring, modeling, and process control of biosorption columns at the lab and pilot scales.