Biosorption: Principles, and Applications

In recent years, human and anthropogenic activities have generated elevated accumulations of toxic pollutants in the environment. These toxic pollutants become persistent in the environment and constitute major environmental problems by badly disturbing the ecosystems and human health. Pollutants including heavy metals, hydrocarbons, dyes, pesticides, and radionuclides are hard to remove from the environment given that most of them cannot be degraded by chemical and biological means and are eventually indestructible. Several approaches such as soil incineration, precipitation, or/and ion-exchange methods, have been extensively employed, but are expensive and detrimental to the environment. Apart from physicochemical methods, biological methods have also been acknowledged as an alternative remediation process. Fundamentals of these biological approaches are microbial activities through which degradation of pollutants depends. Moreover, the cosmopolitan distribution and significant properties of microorganisms in alteration and detoxification of pollutants make them an ultimate candidate. Among biological methods, biosorption is one of the promising technology for pollutant elimination/recovery from wastewater because of its effectiveness, simplicity, and easy biomass availability. This article critically reviews the mechanism, advantages, limitations, and the significance of biosorption for the removal of heavy metals, radionuclides, dyes, hydrocarbons, and pesticides from the environment.