Heavy metal contamination of natural rivers and wastewaters is a problem for both the environment and human society. The accumulation and adsorption of heavy metals could happen with several organic and inorganic matters, but the most used adsorbents are (biological and chemical) organic compounds. This review article presents the basics of heavy metal adsorption on several organic surfaces. There are many organic matters, which seem to be useful as agents for heavy metal adsorption. All of the cited authors and articles present the adsorption kinetics by the most used isotherm models (such as Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms). By comparing several research results presented by a pre-selected assortment of papers, we would like to give an overview of the microbiological, organic chemical, and other surface adsorption possibilities. We draw conclusions for two new adsorption fields (adsorption with biosorbent and artificial materials). We present an optional possibility to study adsorption kinetics, efficiency and regeneration methods to successfully conclude the heavy metal treatment process, and we make some recommendations about the efficient water usage calculations using the water allowance coefficient (WAC) indicator.

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Remediation of areas contaminated by potentially toxic elements (PTE) requires the appropriate assessment of the environmental mobility of contaminants. The fractionation techniques developed for agrochemical and environmental purposes model the pathways of environmental mobilization mainly by sequential extraction procedures. In Europe mostly the simplified extraction scheme proposed by Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) in 1993 is widely used, why only to this certified sediment sample (BCR 701) is available, certified for fractionation of six elements (Cu, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn). In the BCR extracts the reagentsolvents applied in leaching steps cause strong matrix interferences when for determination the PTE-contents of these solutions the multielemental capacity of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) should be utilized. Due to the different source of contamination the flexible multi-elemental ICP-OES method should be applied for analysis of the different BCR-extractant-solvent media which makes possible the reliable detection of all occurring PTE in the area. For this purpose as the most adequate solution the application of ICP-OES spectrometer with charge-coupled device (CCD)-detection was selected which is able to record the entire spectral range between 120-800 nm. On the basis of detailed study of BCR-solvent-matrix-and expected-analite-line interferences it was established that the sensitivities of the prominent lines of pollutant elements strongly depend on the type of extractants. For improving the accuracy of analytical results obtained for soils and environmental sediments, matrix matched calibration, internal standardization and robust plasma conditions were recommended and optimized. The successful application of this methodology is presented for a PTE-contamited lake sediment sample and for selected typical Hungarian soil samples stored in sample bank of Hungarian Soil Protection Information and Monitoring System.