It
has also been observed that these biosorbents need further modifications
to increase the active binding sites and also make them
readily available for sorption. Huang and Huang (1996) have stated
that pre-treatment of biomass removes the surface impurities on
the biosorbents and expose the available binding sites for metal
sorption (Cabuk et al., 2005).
The main goal of this work was to demonstrate the use of modified
waste materials from banana, lemon and orange cortex as an
excellent source of biomass for the chelating of heavy metals and
its applications to eliminate these contaminants from underground
water as well as contribute to reduce the organic pollution due to
this kind of wastes in places with strong fruit juice or fruit process
industry like Mexico.