Eng 10 Concept Paper
Name: JUSAYAN, REX ANGELO M.
Student Number: 2014-81828
English 10 WFW4
“Biosorption”
With rapid urbanization and industrialization, disposal of aqueous effluents into the environment has increased. Many of these effluents contain high level of toxic pollutants such heavy metals which are mainly produced by anthropogenic activities such as smelting, battery and steel manufacturing, mining, and metal processing (Verma and Dwivedi, 2013). The pollution caused by the release of these heavy metals into the aquatic system has become one of the major problems over the last few decades. In fact, some inland water bodies in Europe and America were closed for fishing due to heavy metal contamination (Vieira and Volesky, 2000). In Northern Brazil, fishes from fresh waters were killed with mercury as a result of illegal gold extraction (Vieira and Volesky 2000). The same thing also happened here in the Philippines- fishes were killed due to the contamination of the Taft River in Samar with lead, copper, iron, cadmium, and zinc (Social Assessment of the Bagacay Mine, n.d.; Slideshare, 2012). Heavy metals can be dangerous not only to fishes but also to human’s health, especially when acquired in significantly high amount. Cadmium can cause Pneumoconiosis and kidney failure, chromium can cause stomach cancer, copper can damage the cognitive function of human’s brain, lead can trigger chronic renal failure and neurodegenerative disorders, gold can bring about gastro-intestinal bleeding, and nickel can initiate systemic toxicity (Jarup, 2003).
Due to the dreadful effects brought about by heavy metal contamination, substantial attention has been given to the discovery of possible methods for heavy metal removal from aquatic systems. Reverse osmosis, electrochemical methods, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, flotation, and membrane processes are some of the techniques that were discovered (Park et al., 2010). Unfortunately, these techniques have some limitations. They cannot
Student Number: 2014-81828
English 10 WFW4
“Biosorption”
With rapid urbanization and industrialization, disposal of aqueous effluents into the environment has increased. Many of these effluents contain high level of toxic pollutants such heavy metals which are mainly produced by anthropogenic activities such as smelting, battery and steel manufacturing, mining, and metal processing (Verma and Dwivedi, 2013). The pollution caused by the release of these heavy metals into the aquatic system has become one of the major problems over the last few decades. In fact, some inland water bodies in Europe and America were closed for fishing due to heavy metal contamination (Vieira and Volesky, 2000). In Northern Brazil, fishes from fresh waters were killed with mercury as a result of illegal gold extraction (Vieira and Volesky 2000). The same thing also happened here in the Philippines- fishes were killed due to the contamination of the Taft River in Samar with lead, copper, iron, cadmium, and zinc (Social Assessment of the Bagacay Mine, n.d.; Slideshare, 2012). Heavy metals can be dangerous not only to fishes but also to human’s health, especially when acquired in significantly high amount. Cadmium can cause Pneumoconiosis and kidney failure, chromium can cause stomach cancer, copper can damage the cognitive function of human’s brain, lead can trigger chronic renal failure and neurodegenerative disorders, gold can bring about gastro-intestinal bleeding, and nickel can initiate systemic toxicity (Jarup, 2003).
Due to the dreadful effects brought about by heavy metal contamination, substantial attention has been given to the discovery of possible methods for heavy metal removal from aquatic systems. Reverse osmosis, electrochemical methods, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, flotation, and membrane processes are some of the techniques that were discovered (Park et al., 2010). Unfortunately, these techniques have some limitations. They cannot