Typical lignocellulosic wastes and by-products for biosorption process in water and wastewater treatment: A critical review

•This review focuses on agro-industrial wastes/by-products as low-cost biosorbent.•Current studies on heavy metal, dye, organic and nutrient biosorption are reviewed.•The effectiveness of biosorbents and their modification are discussed.•Parameters affecting the biosorptive capacity are reviewed.•Maximum biosorption capacity of different typical lignocellulosics is reported.

Biosorption on lignocellulosic wastes and by-products has been identified as a proper alternative to the existing technologies applied for toxic metal ion and dye removal from wastewater streams. This paper deals with utilization of typical low cost wastes and by-products produced in different food agricultural and agro-industries as biosorbent and reviews the current state of studies on a wide variety of cheap biosorbents in natural and modified forms. The efficiency of each biosorbent has been also discussed with respect to the operating conditions (e.g. temperature, hydraulic residence time, initial metal concentration, biosorbent particle size and its dosage), chemical modification on sorption capacity and preparation methods, as well as thermodynamics and kinetics.