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cadmium in drinking water cause several health hazards like skin cancer, allergic
dermatitis, hypertension, etc. Increase in industrial activity has headed to enhancement of toxic metal contamination in lakes, rivers, and many other water bodies.
Thus it is necessary to develop an eco-friendly, cheap, and efficient method to eliminate heavy metals from the effluent water.
Different improved techniques such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, membrane separation, etc. have been designed to decrease the effect of heavy metals. But
the most efficient and economically feasible process among them is adsorption.
This chapter covers on low-cost adsorbents and their sources and applications in
removal of toxic heavy metal ions from effluent. This chapter also includes a brief
summary of readily available cheap adsorbents like zeolite, clay, peat moss, chitosan, and their applications.
Keywords Adsorbent · Heavy metal · Pollution · Water treatment · Remediation
10.1 Introduction
The heavy metal can be defined as “any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations.” Such elements
possess higher atomic weights (Srivastava et al. 2008). Metals such as arsenic, lead,
and chromium are able to provoke toxicity at trace level when come in contact with
living organisms. Heavy metals are not biodegradable and can easily enter inside
human body through drinking water, air, and intake of food. Although some of the
heavy metals are essential for proper functioning of body metabolism system.
Insufficient supply of these nutrients results in number of diseases. Some of the
major threats has been shown in Fig. 10.1. Due to the contamination of these toxic
metals in aquatic streams several disasters had been faced in past decades.
Accumulation of mercury in fish gradually poisoned human beings indirectly. In the
last few decades, there has been a rise in public health globally because of contamination of environment by such toxic metals. Due to increasing demand of energy
and their use in different industrial, agricultural, domestic, and technological applications, human exposures to such heavy metals have risen drastically. Heavy metals
are recognized as priority pollutants. The maximum contaminant level of different
metals and associated health hazards are enlisted in Table 10.1.
Major heavy metal disposal sources are geogenic, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
industrial, domestic discharges (Tchounwou et al. 2012). These metals are mainly
released to the environment from mineral extraction process. Thus mining actions
are measured as the key source of toxic heavy metals. Volcanic actions have also
been measured as a contributing source to heavy metal discharge to environment.
Toxic metal ions are released into water system from various industries like electroplating industries, electronic equipment manufacturing industries, coal burning
plants, petroleum industries, nuclear power plant, leather industries, steel plants,
M. Maharana et al.
cadmium in drinking water cause several health hazards like skin cancer, allergic
dermatitis, hypertension, etc. Increase in industrial activity has headed to enhancement of toxic metal contamination in lakes, rivers, and many other water bodies.
Thus it is necessary to develop an eco-friendly, cheap, and efficient method to eliminate heavy metals from the effluent water.
Different improved techniques such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, membrane separation, etc. have been designed to decrease the effect of heavy metals. But
the most efficient and economically feasible process among them is adsorption.
This chapter covers on low-cost adsorbents and their sources and applications in
removal of toxic heavy metal ions from effluent. This chapter also includes a brief
summary of readily available cheap adsorbents like zeolite, clay, peat moss, chitosan, and their applications.
Keywords Adsorbent · Heavy metal · Pollution · Water treatment · Remediation
10.1 Introduction
The heavy metal can be defined as “any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations.” Such elements
possess higher atomic weights (Srivastava et al. 2008). Metals such as arsenic, lead,
and chromium are able to provoke toxicity at trace level when come in contact with
living organisms. Heavy metals are not biodegradable and can easily enter inside
human body through drinking water, air, and intake of food. Although some of the
heavy metals are essential for proper functioning of body metabolism system.
Insufficient supply of these nutrients results in number of diseases. Some of the
major threats has been shown in Fig. 10.1. Due to the contamination of these toxic
metals in aquatic streams several disasters had been faced in past decades.
Accumulation of mercury in fish gradually poisoned human beings indirectly. In the
last few decades, there has been a rise in public health globally because of contamination of environment by such toxic metals. Due to increasing demand of energy
and their use in different industrial, agricultural, domestic, and technological applications, human exposures to such heavy metals have risen drastically. Heavy metals
are recognized as priority pollutants. The maximum contaminant level of different
metals and associated health hazards are enlisted in Table 10.1.
Major heavy metal disposal sources are geogenic, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
industrial, domestic discharges (Tchounwou et al. 2012). These metals are mainly
released to the environment from mineral extraction process. Thus mining actions
are measured as the key source of toxic heavy metals. Volcanic actions have also
been measured as a contributing source to heavy metal discharge to environment.
Toxic metal ions are released into water system from various industries like electroplating industries, electronic equipment manufacturing industries, coal burning
plants, petroleum industries, nuclear power plant, leather industries, steel plants,
M. Maharana et al.