Adsorption processes are being widely used by various researchers for the removal of
heavy metals from waste streams and activated carbon has been frequently used as an adsorbent.
Despite its extensive use in water and wastewater treatment industries, activated carbon remains
an expensive material. In recent years, the need for safe and economical methods for the elimination
of heavy metals from contaminated waters has necessitated research interest toward the production
of low cost alternatives to commercially available activated carbon. Therefore, there is an urgent
need that all possible sources of agro-based inexpensive adsorbents should be explored and their
feasibility for the removal of heavy metals should be studied in detail. The objective of this research
is to study the utilization possibilities of less expensive adsorbents for the elimination of heavy metals
from wastewater. Agricultural and industrial waste by-products such as rice husk and fly ash
have be used for the elimination of heavy metals from wastewater for the treatment of the
EL-AHLIA Company wastewater for electroplating industries as an actual case study.
Results showed that low cost adsorbents can be fruitfully used for the removal of heavy metals
with a concentration range of 20–60 mg/l also, using real wastewater showed that rice husk was
effective in the simultaneous removal of Fe, Pb and Ni, where fly ash was effective in the removal
of Cd and Cu.