Coffee Industry and Ways of Using By-Products as Bioadsorbents for Removal of Pollutants

Abstract

As a result of anthropological activities, various pollutants, for example heavy metals, enter the environment in significant quantities. They have the potential to accumulate in living organisms and are not biodegradable in the environment. This poses a major threat to the health and life of living organisms and the environment. Therefore, the search for effective technologies to reduce anthropic pollutants in the environment is so important. Currently, membrane techniques, chemical precipitation, electrolysis, coagulation, ion exchange and adsorption, among others, are used to remove heavy metal ions. The most versatile method is adsorption on adsorbents. It is a relatively simple method, but very expensive. This prompts a constant search for new, effective and inexpensive adsorbents. Coffee is one of the most important foodstuffs and agricultural commodities in the world. From the point of view of the circular economy, by-products from the processing of coffee beans have become a valuable raw material in other areas of life. An important way to manage waste from the coffee bean processing industry is to produce adsorbents using it. There are data from laboratory studies indicating that it is possible to produce effective and low-cost adsorbents using by-products from the agro-food industry to remove pollutants from the aquatic environment and wastewater. Laboratory studies prove the high efficiency of heavy metal removal when using coffee-processing waste as adsorbents. However, data from real-world studies are still lacking. In addition, there is a lack of data from analyses on the impact of alternative adsorbents on economic, environmental and social aspects.