Banana Peel Powder Biosorbent for Removal of Hazardous Organic Pollutants from Wastewater

Disposing of pollutants in water sources poses risks to human health and the environment, but biosorption has emerged as an eco-friendly, cost-effective, and green alternative for wastewater treatment. This work shows the ability of banana peel powder (BPP) biosorbents for efficient sorption of methylene blue (MB), atrazine, and glyphosate pollutants. The biosorbent highlights several surface chemical functional groups and morphologies containing agglomerated microsized particles and microporous structures. BPP showed a 66% elimination of MB in 60 min, with an adsorption capacity (qe) of ~33 mg g−1, and a combination of film diffusion and chemisorption governed the sorption process. The biosorbent removed 91% and 97% of atrazine and glyphosate pesticides after 120 min, with qe of 3.26 and 3.02 mg g−1, respectively. The glyphosate and atrazine uptake best followed the Elovich and the pseudo-first-order kinetic, respectively, revealing different sorption mechanisms. Our results suggest that BPP is a low-cost biomaterial for green and environmentally friendly wastewater treatment

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved