Cannabis/Hemp for Sustainable Agriculture and Materials
Résumé
Treatment of wastewater pollution is a critical issue in the context of
growing population and industrialization. Actual treatment methods are
expensive and not fully effective and rely on fossil fuel-derived
chemicals, thus calling for alternative adsorption methods on natural
materials such as hemp. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa Linn) is
a high-yielding annual industrial crop harvested for its fiber from the
stem and its oil from the seeds. Hemp is a multi-purpose plant with
great potential because of its many uses, such as building materials,
textiles, paper, food and beverage, automotive, cosmetics, and medicine.
Wastewater treatment is another innovative application. Indeed, the
past decade has shown an explosion in the study of hemp-based materials
for the biosorption of metal ions from effluents, demonstrating that
industrial hemp is one of the most promising materials for environmental
applications. Hemp products can be used as biosorbents in granular or
felt forms or to prepare non-conventional activated carbons, both used
in biosorption-oriented processes. In this chapter, after a brief
description of biosorption, the use of different types of hemp-based
materials that can be used as pollutant biosorbents is described.