Review of Inexpensive Adsorbents for Removing Boron from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

Boron is one of the essential elements for plants, animals, and humans, but its excess poses a great risk to life. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively remove boron from various boron-containing aqueous solutions to reduce damage to living things. There have been many studies on the adsorbent for removing boron from the boron-containing aqueous solution, but many of them are expensive or cannot be industrialized or commercialized, so they remain in the laboratory stage. Reducing the cost of adsorbent and realizing commercialization can be said to be the key links to successfully solving the problem of boron removal from an aqueous solution. The purpose of this review is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of inexpensive adsorbents used for boron removal from industrial wastewater and drinking water and to discuss future research directions. This article summarizes the development and utilization of inexpensive adsorbents, including inorganic materials, natural materials, and wastes. The limitations of performance, applicable conditions, sources, et al., of inexpensive adsorbents currently developed and utilized were analyzed, and future research directions were discussed. Most inexpensive adsorbents have a limited range of use, and compared to organic materials, inorganic materials have very low adsorption performance. The development of adsorbents using natural materials or waste is not active. Therefore, further research is needed to improve the performance of inorganic adsorbents, develop environmentally sustainable and efficient adsorbents, and recycle adsorbents.