Low-Cost Technology for Heavy Metal Cleaning from Water

Uncontrolled and rapid industrialization and excessive anthropogenic activities have caused extensive pollution in the waterbodies. Water contamination has been a major concern especially in the developing world. The high number and level of pollutants in the wastewaters are hazardous to human health and the environment. Among major pollutants found in the wastewaters are heavy metals. Many conventional methods such as membrane filtration, adsorption, electrochemical treatment, and bio-sorption have been applied to remove and remediate the heavy metal contamination from wastewaters. Although some of the approaches are found to be successful, a number of these are not economical and time consuming. Among the new technologies, nanotechnology, emerging membrane technology, low cost sorbents technology, use of zeolites and metal organic frameworks have been developed as efficient and economical techniques for heavy metals removal from wastewaters. Biotechnological methods have great potentials to lower the cost of wastewater treatment for contamination removal. This chapter outlines the conventional wastewater treatment techniques and highlights the potential low cost methods for successful removal and remediation of toxic heavy metals from the wastewaters.