review · International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
Surface modification of biomass offers an effective strategy to enhance adsorption capabilities for removing organic pollutants, serving as an alternative to expensive commercial activated carbon. This review evaluates various modification methods and biomass-based adsorbents across multiple contaminant classes, including pesticides, pharmaceutical compounds, and dyes. Performance varies widely depending on the material and contaminant. For instance, acid-activated Posidonia oceanica achieved an adsorption capacity of 2681.9 mg/g for Rhodamine B dye, whereas nitric acid-modified rice husk showed a capacity of 0.35 mg/g for methyl parathion pesticide. In addition to examining mechanistic pathways, adsorbent regeneration, and the environmental impacts of chemical treatments, the review assesses computational optimisation models applied to biomass adsorption. Critical knowledge gaps and technical challenges must still be addressed to transition these modified biomass adsorbents toward realistic industrial deployment.
Industrial and agricultural activities release toxic dyes, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals into water systems. Commercial activated carbon removes these contaminants effectively but remains expensive. Evaluating chemically modified biomass offers a path toward affordable, high-capacity water purification. Understanding the performance limits, recycling potential, and environmental trade-offs of these materials is crucial for designing practical and sustainable wastewater treatment systems.
This work informs the development of low-cost filtration media for industrial wastewater treatment, agricultural run-off management, and pharmaceutical effluent control. Intended users include industrial plant operators and water treatment facilities seeking alternatives to commercial activated carbon. The technology remains at an early to mid-stage research level, as the underlying evidence is drawn from batch and optimisation studies, with significant technical gaps still to be resolved before industrial-scale implementation can occur.
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Abstract Modification of the adsorbent surfaces has been considered a fascinating strategy that enhances biomass-based adsorption properties for efficient removal of organic pollutants. This is based on the attempt to replace the cost-ineffectiveness of the commercial activated carbon. The present study discusses different modification strategies and a review on modified biomass materials for the sorption of organic contaminants. Unlike previous literatures in the field, wider range of these pollutants are discussed in this study under different categories including pesticides (such as insecticides, herbicides, fungicides), pharmaceutical (e.g. analgesic and antipyretic drugs, antibiotic drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antimalaria drugs), and dyes (e.g. azo, xanthene, miscellaneous diagnostic, tri-aryl methane, and phenol-derived polymeric dyes). It was observed that the acid-activated Posidonia oceanica and HNO 3 -modified rice husk displayed the highest and lowest adsorption capacities of 2681.9 and 0.35 mg/g for removing Rhodamine B dye and methyl parathion pesticide, respectively. The mechanistic aspects of organic pollutants adsorption, their corresponding regeneration studies, and environmental challenges with chemical modifications are also discussed. The use of computational (optimization) models for modified biomass-based adsorbents to remove organic pollutants is devoid in previous reviews but discussed in the present study. To foster more advancement in this field, the concluding part presents various challenges and knowledge gaps for furthering research towards more realistic industrial implementations.
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DOI: 10.1007/s13762-023-04872-2
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