| dc.description.abstract | Recently, anthropogenic activities have evolved into sources of pollution, particularly when it
comes to the discharge of harmful heavy metals into the natural environment. As a result, the
concentration of diverse heavy metal ions in surface and ground waters significantly increases,
compromising aquatic life. Given that toxic heavy metals have undesirable consequences on the
health of all living things, their presence in the aquatic environment is a major worry. However,
the drawbacks of conventional wastewater treatment technologies, such as their high consumption
of energy, production of hazardous secondary sludge, and high operating costs, made them
uneconomical and non-sustainable for developing nations. This book chapter presents and
discusses the most recent developments and advances in the adsorptive removal of various heavy
metals from aquatic systems through the application of low-cost adsorbents derived from
agricultural waste materials. The influence of independent adsorption parameters as well as the
mechanism of heavy metals removal from aqueous media have been explained using adsorption
isotherm and kinetic models. This book chapter has demonstrated that the adsorptive removal of
heavy metals using low-cost adsorbents derived from agricultural waste materials has several
advantages. Almost all the studies on the adsorptive decontamination of various heavy metals from
aqueous solutions revealed that adsorbents synthesized from agro-based materials are promising,
eco-friendly, and cost-effective. However, several gaps exist, which need to be addressed to
increase the application of the adsorption technology in treating industrial wastewater at a large
scale. Hence, at the end of this book chapter, some future perspectives providing knowledge gaps
that require consideration and further research have been enumerated. | en_US |
