SOHAIL AYUB, S. I. ALI AND N. A. KHAN
Abstract
The rapid industrialization in the developing countries has resulted in acceleration the flux of heavy metals, which are posing a serious threat to the environment by virtue of discharging effluents of polluting nature. Pollution by chromium is considerable concern as the metal has found widespread use in electroplating, metal finishing, cooling towers, dyes, paints, leather tanning industries etc. The treatment of chromium bearing effluents have been reported through several methods, such as chemical reduction and precipitation, ion exchange, electrochemical reduction, evaporation, reverse osmosis and adsorption. Most of these methods need high capital and operational costs. However among these, adsorption is found to be highly effective, inexpensive and easy method to operate. India is an agricultural country and generates considerable amount of agricultural wastes such as sugar cane bagassess, coconut jute, nut shell, rice straw, rice husk, waste tea leaves, ground nut husk, crop wastes, peanut hulls, fertilizer wastes etc. Successful studies on these materials could be beneficial to the developing countries. Most of the previous works highlight the use of commercially activated carbon, which is relatively expensive and less feasible to use in developing countries.