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New trends in removing heavy metals from wastewater

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology volume 100, pages 6509–6518 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

With the development of researches, the treatments of wastewater have reached a certain level. Whereas, heavy metals in wastewater cause special concern in recent times due to their recalcitrance and persistence in the environment. Therefore, it is important to get rid of the heavy metals in wastewater. The previous studies have provided many alternative processes in removing heavy metals from wastewater. This paper reviews the recent developments and various methods for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. It also evaluates the advantages and limitations in application of these techniques. A particular focus is given to innovative removal processes including adsorption on abiological adsorbents, biosorption, and photocatalysis. Because these processes have leaded the new trends and attracted more and more researches in removing heavy metals from wastewater due to their high efficency, pluripotency and availability in a copious amount. In general, the applicability, characteristic of wastewater, cost-effectiveness, and plant simplicity are the key factors in selecting the most suitable method for the contaminated wastewater.

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Acknowledgments

The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21477027), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2014 A020216048), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015 M582363).

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Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Water Quality Safety and Protection of the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, China

    Meihua Zhao, Ying Xu, Chaosheng Zhang & Hongwei Rong

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China

    Guangming Zeng

Authors
  1. Meihua Zhao
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  2. Ying Xu
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  3. Chaosheng Zhang
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  4. Hongwei Rong
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  5. Guangming Zeng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chaosheng Zhang.

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The article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Zhao, M., Xu, Y., Zhang, C. et al. New trends in removing heavy metals from wastewater. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 6509–6518 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7646-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7646-x

Keyword

  • Heavy metals
  • Chemical precipitation
  • Membrane filtration
  • Ion exchange
  • Adsorption
  • Photocatalysis