Recovery of Heavy Metals by Biosorption and Regeneration of the Adsorbents

Abstract

In recent times, significant research is carried out regarding efficient and cost-effective removal of heavy metals from water systems with the help of adsorption. Out of different absorption processes, biosorption processes have some major advantages over the other available physical or chemical processes. They have higher applicability because of their low cost and eco-friendly nature. However, no sufficient attention was paid to the recycling of adsorbents and recovery of heavy metals from the absorbents. The adsorbents themselves become toxic after absorbing the heavy metal. So, it is important to dispose of the used absorbent or reuse the absorbent by recovering and recycling process. In this chapter, the authors focus on recycling the absorbent and recovering of heavy metal that are used in various biosorption processes. Various types of acids, alkalis, and chelating agents were used regenerating agents for the recycling and recovery process.