MERCURY REMOVAL FROM WASTEWATER BY PHYSICO-CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND COMBINED METHODS: A REVIEW

摘要

The presence of mercury in the wastewater can have adverse effect on living organisms. This review summarizes some important investigations on mercury removal from wastewater. Biosoption on various waste materials was the most investigated method among many methods. Use of ion exchange membrane bioreactor concept for removal of mercury from water has been explored. Ion exchange was predominant in application of zeolite for the mercury removal. Also use of organic precipitant yielded good results. Foam fractionation was also effective. All these methods were found to be useful on laboratory and pilot studies. There is need to adopt these innovative and environmental friendly methods on industrial scale to actually convert the laboratory research into practical applications. Some efforts are already reported on this aspect of investigation and use of innovative methods with application of biological and photochemical properties of various organisms and species. There is the need to scale up the laboratory methods to industrial applications via pilot plant studies.