“…However, recently a number of alternative materials have been investigated for the recovery of PGMs from dilute acid solutions. These new materials issued from renewable resources are part of the new class of biosorbents, including algal, bacterial or fungal biomass (Turner et al 2007), biopolymers (Laudenslager et al 2008;Dang et al 2008;Jaworska et al 2003;Ruiz et al 2001Ruiz et al , 2002Guibal et al 1999a, b;Kondo et al 1997;Inoue et al 1993), waste materials from agriculture (Parajuli et al , 2009, and even modified waste materials such as waste newspaper (Adhikari et al 2008). These biosorbents are generally binding metal ions through sorption mechanisms comparable to those used for ion exchange and chelating resins, with the major interest of using low cost materials, with, in most cases, more environmentally friendly properties (i.e., renewable, more benign thermal degradation at the end of life cycle) than conventional resins.…”