Using Vegetal Biomass for Pollution Adsorption

CLEDON, MAXIMILIANO; GALVEZ-CLOUTIER, ROSA; VEGA-BAUDRIT, JOSÉ ROBERTO; CLEDÓN, M.

Integrated and Sustainable Environmental Remediation

ACS

Año: 2018; p. 1 - 13

As anthropic environmental effects began to greatly increaseafter the industrial revolution, the idea of infinite dilutionand environmental carrying capacity delayed the evolution ofenvironmental protection and sustainable development untilthe end of the twentieth century. Since then, a growing numberof studies have focused on applicable technology to removecontaminants from the environment or on impairing or reducingtheir arrival to natural matrices. Here we present an overviewof the use of lignocellulosic materials and vegetal waste assustainable solutions for pollution adsorption. In general terms,potato peels, sugarcane bagasse, sunflower, corn, and vinestems, husks, fruit peels and other vegetal material can adsorbup to 10 mg of metals and hundreds of organic pollutants pergram of material, thanks to their carboxyl groups?as a pHgreater than 6 and warm water temperatures are key factorsto maximize the efficiency of the process. In this framework,using vegetal waste appears to be an effective low-cost optionfor sustainable water pollution mitigation.