STUDY OF BIOSORPTION OF HEAVY METALS USING AGRICULTURAL AND MICROBIAL BIOMASS: A REVIEWRITU BIR AND MEENAKSHI SINGHAbstract With increasing urbanization and industrialization, pollution is becoming a severe problem. Industries discharge a large amount of untreated or partially treated water into water bodies which contain a variety of harmful effluents in them. Waste water discharged from industries also contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium(Vl). These metal ions being non biodegradable are lethal for all forms of life, enter the food chain and start accumulating especially in higher trophic levels. Various techniques are available for recovery of metals but due to high operational and maintenance costs, production of large amounts of toxic sludge these methods are inefficient and economically unviable. Biosorption of heavy metals by agricultural and microbial biomass can emerge as a promising alternative for removal of heavy metals from aqueous solution by binding with metal ions. This paper makes an effort to review the variety of agricultural and microbial biomass available for biosorption of heavy metals thus controlling water pollution. |