Contamination of Water by Heavy Metals and Treatment Methods – A Review

Abstract

Water is an indispensable need for the survival of living ecosystems. Industrialization and urbanization gifted a sophisticated life as well as a polluted environment. Water is getting polluted by various means like human activities, industries, and sewage. One of the serious issues around the globe in the upcoming days is heavy metal pollution. A voluminous amount of heavy metals are let into the environment from various sources like agricultural, industry, sewage, and mining. It causes adverse effects on the environment and human beings when the heavy metals concentration is beyond the expected permissible limit. Innovative processes are developing day by day for the operational deletion of heavy metals. This review article provides a consolidated report of the treatment techniques used for heavy metals removal of with excellent efficiency like precipitation, ion-exchange process, adsorption, solvent extraction, electrocoagulation and membrane processes.