Biosorption of Heavy Metals as a New Alternative Method for Wastewater Treatment: A Review

Abstract

Heavy metals are recognized as the most significant environmental concern, since they are a major source of wastewater pollution. Human activities and industrialization have mostly resulted in the discharge of heavy metal-containing pollutants into water resources, contaminating them and endangering the health of humans and the environment. Many studies on wastewater treatment procedures such as precipitation, evaporation, ion exchange, membrane processes, and electroplating have been done. However, these traditional methods are costly, non-renewable and produce secondary pollutants. We concentrated on biosorption in this review because it is thought to be the most promising alternative strategy for eliminating hazardous metal ions from water sources. Biosorption is a physical process that employs ion exchange, surface complexation and precipitation to use less expensive alternative biological materials as biosorbents. Various biomasses including microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), algae and plant products have been used as biosorbents for metal biosorption. Biosorption with local microbiota has inspired considerable interest in the removal of harmful heavy metals from wastewater without creating any detrimental consequences in recent years. Microorganisms, particularly fungi (both live and dead), have been recognized as a potential class of low-cost adsorbents for heavy metal ion removal in solution. The biosorption behavior of fungal biomass attracts the attention due to its numerous advantages; consequently, additional study is required to completely exploit it in wastewater treatment.