Ocean-based sorbents for decontamination of metal-bearing wastewaters: a review

ABSTRACT

Remediation of heavy metal contaminated aqueous streams is of utmost importance due to recalcitrant and persistent behaviour of heavy metals in environment. Traditional removal techniques used for the remediation of toxic heavy metals are either costly or inefficient as well as produce enormous quantity of toxic chemical sludge. On the other hand, biosorption is evolving as an alternative treatment method to the traditional methods for remediation as well as selective recovery of metal ions from contaminated waters. Biosorption presents several inherent merits over other conventional as well as biological methods such as cost-effectiveness, high sorptional uptake, biological or chemical sludge minimization, regeneration/reuse of biosorbents, operation over wide range of physico-chemical conditions as well as possibility of metal recovery. Of the various biosorbents, ocean-based sorbent materials are copious and economical biosorbents for metal-bearing wastewaters. Seaweeds, crab shell, sea grass, seashell and fish scales are studied as ocean-based sorbents for various metal ions. The inherent chemical composition as well as the presence of various functional groups (carboxyl, amine, phosphonate, etc.) enabled the ocean-based sorbents to perform well in metal biosorption. The scope of this present review paper is to collate scattered existing information/results on different ocean-based waste materials utilized as sorbent for various metal ions. In addition, the application of ocean-based sorbents to real metal-bearing wastewaters was also evaluated.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Biosorption
• seaweeds
• crab shell
• wastewater treatment
• heavy metals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr R. Senthilkumar is as an Assistant Professor, and Head of the Chemical Unit, Department of Engineering, College of Applied Sciences, Ministry of Higher Education, Suhar, Sultanate of Oman. He has 20 years of experience in teaching and 5 years of experience in industry. He received his bachelor's degree in chemical Engineering from the Institution of Engineers (India) and Master of Technology in Chemical Engineering from Anna University, India. He completed his Ph.D, titled “Uptake and Removal of Heavy Metals using Macro Algae and Crab Shell Particles” in December 2008. He is a chartered engineer(I) since 2004 and has done many consultancy services in the area of potable water plants and chemical industries. He has received two industrial research projects from the government of Oman(TRC and IIC) and one in the private sector which worth about 200,000 OMR in total. He has guided 3 master's levels and one Ph.D. student. He has published his research work in 18 international peer revived journals and presented papers in 15 international and national conferences and edited two books. He is a member of the editorial board and reviewer for many international journals. His current areas of research interest include biosorption, waste water treatment, renewable energy, reaction engineering, petrochemical engineering and environmental engineering.

Dr D.M. Reddy Prasad is an Associate Professor of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Programme at the Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Brunei, involved in teaching various chemical and petroleum engineering related courses and supervising graduate thesis. He worked as process simulation engineer at Andritz Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India and developed industrial simulators for many industries in Brazil, China and Canada. For the past fifteen years, he has worked at various levels as Assistant and Associate professor at different institutes in India, Oman and Malaysia and supervised a number of PhD and Master Students. He worked as assistant professor between 2012 and 2015 in the College of Applied Sciences, Sohar, Oman. He has received a number of industrial consultancy projects from the government and private sector at Malaysia. His performance and innovative approaches were recognized through various awards and merit certificates. He holds a B.Tech (Chemical Engineering) from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi, A.P, India, an M. Tech (Chemical Engineering) from A.C. Tech, Anna University, Chennai, India and a Ph.D. from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, KotakinaBalu, and Sabah, Malaysia. He is an active Chartered Engineer of IChemE (UK) since 2012 and member in many other professional bodies.

Govindarajan Lakshmanarao is currently working as Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering, College of Applied Sciences, Suhar, Sultanate of Oman. His area of research is Artificial Intelligence– Based Process Systems Design. He has published 20 papers in international journals in the areas of environmental engineering, modelling, thermodynamics and process design.

Saravana Kumar Krishnan was born in Bargur, India, in 1978. He received his B.Tech. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Madras, Chennai, India, in 1995, and his M.E. chemical engineering from Annamalai University, India, in 2001 and a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India, in 2012. In 2002, he joined the Department of chemical Engineering, St. Peter's Engineering College, Chennai, India, as a Lecturer, and in 2011 he joined Sathyabama University as assistant professor and in 2012 he became Associate professor. In 2013, he joined the School of Engineering & Science, Manipal international University, Malaysia. He is currently attached with the College of Applied Sciences, Sohar, and Ministry of Higher Education in Sultanate of Oman. His current research interests include simulation of chemical processes, chemical engineering thermodynamics, Transport and thermodynamic properties, environmental engineering and pollution treatment methods. Dr. Saravana is a Charted Engineer of the UK Engineering Council from 2013; he is a senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; also member of different ocieties like, the Institution of Engineering and Technology; Malaysian Society of Engineering and Technology; Indian Society for Technical Education; Fellow Member in Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers; Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society; Membership in International Association of Engineers.

B.S. Naveen Prasad is currently working as Faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Salalah College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman (or) Sathyabama Institute of Science of Technology, Chennai. His areas of research are Hydrodynamics, Mass Transfer, Microfluidics, Nanotechnology and Adsorption studies. He has published more than 20 papers in International Journals in his thrust areas.