Biosorption of hexavalent chromium using nanche (Byrsonima crassifolia L.) by-product

Abstract

Water contamination by heavy metals is generally caused by anthropic activities, with industry being the main source of contamination. The tannery is one of them, since it uses hexavalent chromium salts [Cr (VI)] in the process, and when its effluents are poorly treated, they irremediably damage water bodies and their consumption can have negative effects on human health, such as renal dysfunction and cancer of the digestive tract. Biosorption is an alternative method for the treatment of effluents contaminated with Cr (VI), which consists of using biomass as adsorbent, preferably agro-industrial wastes which, possessing functional groups on their surface and pores, are susceptible to binding with Cr (VI) through mechanisms such as complexation (Al-Homaidan et al., 2018). The nanche fruit (Byrsonima crassifolia L.) has economic importance due to its commercial production, the Agroindustrial and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP) reported in 2016 a production of 7.1 thousand tons of which 0.781 thousand tons of waste were generated considering that 11% of the fruit corresponds to the endocarp which is considered a byproduct (SIAP, 2018), according to the above; using the byproduct as a bioadsorbent develops a new route for its utilization.