NOVEL ADSORBENTS FOR SOLID-LIQUID SEPARATIONS

The first industrial revolution has led to a world-wide emphasis on the adoption of industrialisation as the quickest route for rapid economic development. This has forced large-scale import of technologies – both poor and moderate in quality by the developing countries (Maudgal, 1998). All industrial production processes depend upon natural resources for both inputs (source) and disposal of wastes (sink). Environmental problems crop up (Tare and Chaudhari, 1995) when the input demand is beyond the regenerative capacity at the source and/or when the wastes overwhelm the recycling and/or adsorptive capacity at the sink (see Fig. 1). The pressure on the source and sink is determined by the efficiency of the process that depends among the other things, on the type of technology applied. It is clearly evident from Fig. 1 that, efficiency improvement in technology would possibly lead to reduced pressure on the resource base, both on the source and sink resulting in increased production of goods and services.