Recent Developments in Treatment of Chromium-contaminated Wastewater by Starch-based Adsorbents

Chromium is extremely toxic and considered a priority pollutant. It is compulsory to control the discharge of chromium compounds into aquatic systems in order to prevent severe environmental problems. Among all the treatment methods, adsorption has been proved to be a substantial method for the removal of chromium from wastewater. Recently, a variety of starch-based materials have been used as chromium adsorbents. The present review provides the recent development in the sorption capacities of starch-based sorbents for chromium, new starch-based materials and their advantages for the removal of chromium from the wastewater. Moreover, the adsorption mechanisms of Cr(III) or Cr(VI) on starch-based adsorbents are reviewed, and the sorption efficiency and capacities of starch-based adsorbents are compared with that of other low cost adsorbent materials. The primary objective is to provide the recent information about the starch-based materials as absorbents, and propose that the starch-based microsphere materials as absorbents will develop greater function in removal of chromium from wastewater in future.