Waste to catalyst: Role of agricultural waste in water and wastewater treatment

Presently, owing to the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization activities, a huge quantity of wastewa-ter is generated that contain toxic chemical and heavy metals, imposing higher environmental jeopardies and affecting the life of living well-being and the economy of the counties, if not treated appropriately. Subsequently, the advance-ment in sustainable cost-effective wastewater treatment technology has attracted more attention from policymakers, legislators, and scientific communities. Therefore, the current review intends to highlight the recent development and applications of biochars and/or green nanoparticles (NPs) produced from agricultural waste via green routes in removing the refractory pollutants from water and wastewater. This review also highlights the contemporary applica-tion and mechanism of biochar-supported advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the removal of organic pollutants in water and wastewater. Although, the fabrication and application of agriculture waste-derived biochar and NPs are considered a greener approach, nevertheless, before scaling up production and application, its toxicological and life -cycle challenges must be taken into account. Furthermore, future efforts should be carried out towards process engi-neering to enhance the performance of green catalysts to improve the economy of the process.