A review on pumice for water and wastewater treatment

Abstract

Pumice is a valuable scouring, scrubbing, and polishing material both in powdered form and as a pumice stone. It has been traditionally used in construction industry and biomedicine. It has been evaluated in recent years in the field of water, wastewater, and air treatment. The present study aimed to review the scientific literature of pumice stone with the particular focus on its use for the treatment of water and wastewater. It was observed that most of the publications from 1995 to 2015 dealt with construction materials and treatment use. A number of 143 papers published focused on the removal of cadmium, dyes, color, and many other pollutants by adsorption and catalytic oxidation, while 49% of the papers on water and wastewater treatment was dedicated on adsorption processes. Besides, pumice has been used as a filter medium and integrated to biological treatment. More recent publications have been focusing on integrating pumice with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) after enrichment with other materials. The use of pumice in AOPs, in particular, integrated with nanotechnology has been attracting more scientists to remove micropollutants.