AN OVERVIEW OF MESOPOROUS ADSORBENTS FOR FOOD INDUSTRY WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Water quality is important in order to protect aquatic ecosystems and drinking water resources and it has seen dramatic improvements over decades as a result of the construction of wastewater treatment plants. Organic pollution is the term used when large quantities of organic compounds from domestic sewage, urban run-off, industrial effluents and agriculture wastewater, sewage treatment plants and industry including food processing or agriculture appear in water. During the decomposition process of organic pollutants the dissolved oxygen in the receiving water may be consumed at a greater rate than it can be replenished, causing oxygen depletion and having severe consequences for the stream biota. The removal of highly toxic organic compounds from water have drawn significant interest. A number of methods such as coagulation, filtration with coagulation, precipitation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation processes have been used for the removal of organic pollutants from polluted water and wastewater, but they have been found to be limited, since they often involve high capital and operational costs. The focus of this study is to evaluate the possible techniques for food industry wastewater treatments, in terms of using mesoporous adsorbents for the treatment and removal of organic contaminants in wastewater treatment. Adsorption has advantages over the other methods because of simple design and can involve low investment in term of both initial cost and land required. Materials locally available such as natural materials, agricultural wastes and industrial wastes can be utilized as low-cost adsorbents. Activated carbon produced from these materials can be used as adsorbent for water and wastewater treatment performances.