Treatment of Industrial Wastewater by using Banana Peels and Fish Scales

Environmental pollution by toxic heavy metal contamination due to rapid industrialization is a challenging problem for maintaining the quality and hygiene of water. The discharges of industrial effluents into aquatic environment cause a potential threat to the aquatic life as well as human health, which is a matter of great concern due to their toxic nature and adverse effect. Techniques used to remove heavy metal are namely physical, chemical and biological treatment. Biosorption is a recent eco-friendly technique which gained importance in this decade. The process of Biosorption has many attractive features compared to the conventional method. The present study investigates that successful use of eco-friendly adsorbents Banana peels and Fish scales. Banana peel which is a discarded fruit waste and Fish scales which are readily available waste in the market were used to prepare environment benign bio-adsorbent for the adsorption of impurities from aqueous solution. Banana peels and fish scales were washed, dried and ground to 150-200 m and to 160 m respectively, before being used for treatment of pharmaceutical waste water. The combination of both these biosorbent was used for treatment of waste water with different proportion of adsorbents, variation of pH and contact time. It is found that the maximum efficiency of removal of heavy metal is 60 % and 70 %respectively.