Low Cost and Eco-Friendly Removal of Toxic Heavy Metal from Industrial Wastewater

Although water is the most available resource on the earth, its contamination and shortage in many countries makes it necessary to find out low-cost and eco-friendly materials to remove heavy metals (HMs) from contaminated wastewater. Thus, this study examined the use of sorbents such as eggshell (ES), banana peels (BP), watermelon rind (WR), and their nano form (ESN, BPN, and WRN) to remove HMs (Cu, Cr, Fe, Pb, and Zn) from industrial contaminated wastewater. Nano forms of these sorbents were characterized by TEM and used in the experiment at two addition rates of each sorbent (i.e. 0.5 g and 1.0 g of each normal studied sorbents and 0.05 g and 0.1 g of each nano studied sorbents). The results revealed high efficiency for removing HMs, especially when using ES, ESN, and BPN. These sorbents achieved nearly 100% removal percentage in all detected HMs in the industrial wastewater especially Cu and Pb. These results demonstrate a high potential use of the studied sorbents for HMs removal from contaminated wastewater especially nano forms due to their uniqe properties and higher surface area.