Adsorption Of Heavy Metals Onto Wastewater Treatment Plant Sludge

Abstract

Heavy metals containing wastewater can cause serious environmental pollution problems for aquatic life. Adsorption is a well-established technique for pollutants removal and activated carbon is a widely used adsorbent material. However, use of activated carbon can be expensive due to the regeneration required and loses in the application processes. Biosorption is a recent technology used to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. In recent years investigators have studied inexpensive alternative materials for removal of heavy metal from wastewaters. Significant amount of waste sludge is produced in the industrial and municipal waste water treatment plant. Waste sludge disposal is one of the most important problems in the world. The waste activated sludge provides an excellent opportunity for removal of heavy metals by biosorption because of its availability and free use. Usage of the waste sludge as biosorbent was evaluated in this study.