SYNTHESIS AND REMOVAL OF HEAVY METAL FROM WATER BODIES USING BIOSORBENT (HYDROGEL AGAR-AGAR) ADSORBENTS.

Abstract

Heavy metals (Cadmium, Nickel, Lead and chromium) which are natural components of the Earth's crust are usually associated with toxicity. Exposure to heavy metal , even at trace level, is known to be a risk for human being . The presence of zinc, heavy metals, nickel and others metal in the aqueous environment has potentially damaging effect on human physiology and other biological system when the acceptable levels are exceeded. Heavy metals (Heavy metals),Nickel(NI) ,Lead(Pb), Chromium are the common heavy metal and is often released into aquatic environment during mining activities and metallurgical processes. At high concentrations, heavy metal are highly toxic to most organisms and can be accumulated in organisms before entering human body through food chains. Many technologies have been developed to remediate heavy metals contamination, among which Biosorbents hydrogel Agar-agar is one of the most sustainable and promising. However, high pricing of Biosorbents today is plaguing its large –scale applications. The increased use of heavy metal in industry has resulted in increased availability of metallic substances in natural water sources. Many technologies like adsorption, precipitation , membrane ltration, and ion –exchange have been used to remove metal pollutants from water. However , adsorption has proven to be economical and efcient for removing heavy metal, organic pollutants and dyes form polluted waters. Several adsorbents such as Biosorbents and Silica can be used in the purication of water. Biosorbents has shown to be an efcient adsorbent for the removal of a wide variety of organic and inorganic contaminants present in the aquatic environment. Because of its high surface areas is widely used in the treatment of wastewaters. The effectiveness of Hydrogel Agar-agar in cleaning up polluted water is due to its well developed porosity structure as well as the presence of a wide spectrum of surface functional groups. This makes it capable of distributing pollutants on its large internal surface , making them accessible to reactants.