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Biosorption: a review of promising alternative methods in wastewater treatment

ABSTRACT

Conventional wastewater treatment methods have certain limitations, such as the low removal of refractory organic pollutants, the need for large areas of installation, and the high costs for implementation and operation. Thus, alternative processes have been applied for the treatment of wastewater, such as adsorption, due to its versatility and the possibility of using alternative materials (biosorbents). The biosorption process is considered a biotechnological alternative for the treatment of wastewater, through the use of biosorbents, as agro-industrial waste. In this context, the present work aims to present an exploratory and qualitative bibliographic review, relating the application of the biosorption process in the removal of contaminants in wastewater. Thus, most of the living and dead biomasses showed excellent results in capturing pollutants in aqueous media, being promising in the treatment of industrial wastewater. In addition, agro-industrial waste that accumulate because they are not properly managed, have also been tested for heavy metals and have mostly performed well in terms of biosorptive capacity. Microbial biomass had lower adsorptive capacity values to pollutant removal since it was necessary to control nutrients and the variables necessary for cell survival. It is important to highlight the greater complexity of removal of the organic compounds, since they present in their chemical structures specific functional groups of different ionic nature, making the interaction between biosorbent and organic pollutant difficult. Therefore, it was possible to identify the versatility of the biosorption process, as well as the possibility of using alternative materials.

Keywords
Contaminants; Wastewater Treatment; Adsorption Process; Biosorbents

Laboratório de Hidrogênio, Coppe - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, em cooperação com a Associação Brasileira do Hidrogênio, ABH2 Av. Moniz Aragão, 207, 21941-594, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, Tel: +55 (21) 3938-8791 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
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