Production and Potential of Activated Carbon from Cassava Peels for Remediation of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients from Wastewater: A Review

Cassava peels have been recognized as an ecological burden for the society. Their main advantageous application is animal feeding. However, cassava peels, as many lignocellulosic biomass-rich materials, have stimulated new gateways for the production of renewable, low cost and sustainable adsorbents for water treatment applications. This review compiles the work conducted by various researchers over the last few decades on the use of cassava peels to produce activated carbon for adsorption purposes. In this review, the removal of Active pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) by activated carbon (AC) form agricultural waste has been reviewed and compared with the accruing properties of Cassava peels. The different production processes that have been employed to develop and improve the activated carbon from cassava peels have also been presented to highlight and discuss the key advancements on the viability of a wider scale production of activated carbon from cassava peels. The factors affecting the removal of APIs using AC have been reviewed. The mechanisms of applying activated carbon from cassava peels to effectively adsorb both organic and inorganic content have been reviewed and possibilities of further improvement highlighted. The paper also discusses the key research gaps in the area of customizing the production of Activated carbon from cassava peels for abatement of APIs from wastewater.