Chapter 9
Agricultural Waste-Derived Adsorbents
for Decontamination of Heavy Metals
Soh-Fong Lim, Siti Kartina Abdul Karim, S. N. David Chua,
and Bee-Huah Lim
Contents
1 Heavy Metals in the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
2 Agricultural Waste Biomass . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
3 Parameters Affecting the Adsorption of Heavy Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
3.1 Effect of Solution pH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
3.2 Effect of Initial Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
3.3 Effect of Adsorbent Dosage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
3.4 Effect of Contact Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
3.5 Effect of Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
4 Kinetic Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
5 Adsorption Isotherms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Abstract The growing concerns on the environment in recent years have influenced
the usage of renewable sources as alternative materials to create a platform for the
development of new technology with possible economic potential. Adsorbents
derived from agricultural wastes have hidden economic values which could be
benefited by transforming the agricultural wastes into valuable and useful products.
Numerous agricultural wastes such as skins/peels, cores, pits, leaves, brunches, and
pericarp are being produced in plantation and processing industries. The agricultural
S.-F. Lim (*) · S. N. D. Chua
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: sflim@unimas.my; csndavid@unimas.my
S. K. A. Karim
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak,
Malaysia
e-mail: sitik094@uitm.edu.my
B.-H. Lim
Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsuan, Malaysia, Bangl, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
e-mail: beehuah@ukm.edu.my
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. K. Wang, M. -H. S. Wang, Y. -T. Hung, N. K. Shammas (eds.), Integrated Natural
Resources Management, Handbook of Environmental Engineering 20,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55172-8_9
371