Biorenewable materials for water remediation: The central role of cellulose in achieving sustainability

TLDR

Increasing population and industrial activity raise greenhouse gas emissions and produce chemically contaminated wastewater, and current treatment technologies are energy‑intensive, costly, and can generate hazardous sludge. The review aims to develop sustainable, biodegradable cellulose‑based materials that are less capital intensive, operationally costly, and more environmentally friendly. The article surveys cellulose‑based materials—hydrogels, aerogels, composites, nanocellulose—and their conversion into valuable products, and discusses their use as membranes, adsorbents, sorbents, and beads for wastewater purification. The review highlights challenges and future prospects, emphasizing cellulose‑based materials as sustainable, eco‑friendly alternatives to traditional wastewater treatment materials.

Abstract

As the population increases and manufacturing grows, greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions increase. Contaminated with chemicals such as dyes, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, oil, heavy metals or radionuclides, wastewater purification has become an urgent issue. Various technologies exist that can remove these contaminants from wastewater sources, but they often demand high energy and/or high cost, and in some cases produce contaminant laden sludge that requires safe disposal. The need for methods which are less capital intensive, less operationally costly and more environmentally friendly is suggested. Cellulose-based materials have emerged as promising candidates for wastewater treatment due to their renewability, low cost, biodegradability, hydrophilicity, and antimicrobial property. In this review article, we focussed on developing sustainable and biodegradable cellulose-based materials for wastewater treatment. This article deals with cellulose-based materials' scope and their conversion into valuable products like hydrogel, aerogel, cellulose composites, and nanocellulose. The cellulose-based materials have no harmful environmental impact and are plentiful. The modified cellulose-based materials applying as membrane, adsorbent, sorbent, and beads to purify the wastewater were discussed. Finally, the challenges and future prospects of cellulose-based materials for wastewater treatment were considered, emphasizing their potential to be sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional materials used in wastewater treatment.