IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i17p5427-d626589.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a Circular Economy: Analysis of the Use of Biowaste as Biosorbent for the Removal of Heavy Metals

Author

Listed:
  • Magdalena Madeła

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

  • Monika Skuza

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

Abstract

Industrial human activity has led to the release of substantial amounts of heavy metals into the environment. Contamination of water with heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, copper, zinc, chromium, or nickel represents a serious problem. As part of the circular economy, it is appropriate to use biowaste from agriculture, fisheries, and the timber industry as biosorbents. In this literature review, the potential of using these biowaste groups as biosorbents for metal removal is presented. This biowaste is characterized by the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, carbonyl, amide, amine, sulfydryl, and other groups on their surface, which form complexes and chelates with metals present in water. Biosorption seems to be a potential alternative to conventional technologies for removing or recovering heavy metals from water or wastewater, which are uneconomical and generate additional waste. The paper demonstrates that harnessing the potential of biowaste to remove metals is beneficial to the environment as they can solve the problem of incineration and realise recycling that meets the circular economy. Although the choice of a suitable biosorbent for the removal of a particular metal involves a lot of research, the high biosorption efficiency, low cost, and renewability justify their use.

Suggested Citation

  • Magdalena Madeła & Monika Skuza, 2021. "Towards a Circular Economy: Analysis of the Use of Biowaste as Biosorbent for the Removal of Heavy Metals," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:17:p:5427-:d:626589
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5427/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5427/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tomasz Kamizela & Anna Grobelak & Malgorzata Worwag, 2021. "Use of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in the Recovery of Heavy Metals from Landfill Leachates," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Tomasz Kamizela & Malgorzata Worwag, 2020. "Processing of Water Treatment Sludge by Bioleaching," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-20, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marzena Smol & Paulina Marcinek & Eugeniusz Koda, 2021. "Drivers and Barriers for a Circular Economy (CE) Implementation in Poland—A Case Study of Raw Materials Recovery Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:17:p:5427-:d:626589. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.