Abstract
The toxicity and persistence of heavy metals has become a serious problem for humans. These heavy metals accumulate mainly in wastewater from various industries’ discharged effluents. The recent trends in research are now focused not only on the removal efficiency of toxic metal particles, but also on their effective reuse as catalysts. This review discusses the types of heavy metals obtained from wastewater and their recovery through commonly practiced physico-chemical pathways. In addition, it covers the advantages of the new system for capturing heavy metals from wastewater, as compared to older conventional technologies. The discussion also includes the various structural aspects of trapping systems and their hypothesized mechanistic approaches to immobilization and further rejuvenation of catalysts. Finally, it concludes with the challenges and future prospects of this research to help protect the ecosystem.
Highlights
The dizzying advances of industry and technology have become one of the serious problems in our environment, as they can directly or indirectly leave a big impression on human health and other life systems [1]
Most countries have imposed strict guidelines on to the producers, end-users, and recycling techniques [51,52]. This increase in volume of E-waste might be a serious threat for social life, as these materials consist of toxic heavy metals which negatively impact human health
The amount of recycling of heavy metals recovered from wastewater is very limited
Summary
The dizzying advances of industry and technology have become one of the serious problems in our environment, as they can directly or indirectly leave a big impression on human health and other life systems [1]. Other types of pollutants present in wastewater, such as plastics, plant nutrients, pathogens, and synthetic organic & inorganic chemicals, are not as harmful to the environment like toxic heavy metals [3]. Most small-scale mining operations are illegal, and can cause severe environmental pollution due to poor practice by the workers during the processing of minerals It has already been reported the environment is mostly polluted by the heavy metals due to a lack of regulation on small-scale mining activity [45]. The main heavy metals found in the mining areas are Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pd, Co, As, Ni, and Cd, whereas the study of the literature revealed that Fe and Mn were present at high levels in the soils [46]
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