Agricultural Wastes as Renewable Biomass to Remediate Water Pollution

Abstract

Increases in agricultural waste, population, and industrialization are leading to serious environmental problems, in particular drinking water contamination. Continuous efforts have been made to remediate water pollution through different approaches, either by decreasing the interring of pollutants or treatment of already contaminated water. The development of an efficient, cheaper, and renewable adsorbent is the focus of the current research. Agricultural wastes are cheap materials for this purpose and have attracted much attention of researchers. These agricultural wastes are either field residues such as stems, stalks, and leaves, or process residues such as husks, roots, and bagasse, as they have the same chemical composition (cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignocelluloses). These wastes are processed using different methods to yield an efficient adsorbent. Chemical modification is used to prepare novel efficient adsorbents using agricultural wastes, rather than incineration of these materials. This review summarizes the research outcomes in terms of chemical modification and application of agricultural wastes used for the eradication of organic and inorganic pollutants from water.