Utilization of rice husk ash as novel adsorbent: A judicious recycling of the colloidal agricultural waste

Concern about environmental protection has aroused over the years from a global viewpoint. To date, the ever-increasing importance of biomass as the energy and material resources has lately been accounted by the rising prices for the crude petroleum oil. Rice husk ash, the most appropriate representative of the high ash biomass waste, is currently obtaining sufficient attraction, owning to its wide usefulness and potentiality in environmental conservation. Confirming the assertion, this paper presents a state of the art review of the rice milling industry, its background studies, fundamental properties and industrial applications. Moreover, the key advance on the preparation of novel adsorbents, its major challenges together with the future expectation has been highlighted and discussed. Conclusively, the expanding of rice husk ash in the field of adsorption science represents a viable and powerful tool, leading to the superior improvement of pollution control and environmental preservation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.