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According to WHO, more than 2 billion people are exposed to contaminated water daily and about 485,000 deaths happen annually due to diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery which are contracted from the water. Traditional water treatment technologies such as chemical coagulation, and activated carbon adsorption are heavily utilised but have limitations which include energy consumption, complexity and maintenance costs.

This project proposes the use of processed banana peels as a bio-adsorbent material for removing heavy metals from contaminated water. Banana peels contain functional groups such as carboxyl groups and hydroxyl groups, which are present in compounds including pectin, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. These functional groups play an important role in adsorption because their negatively charged sites can attract and bind heavy metal ions such as lead, copper, and cadmium. The negatively charged functional groups interact with these metal ions through an ion-exchange mechanism, allowing the banana peel to function as a natural ion-exchange filter. As an affordable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable material, processed banana peels offer a promising solution for water treatment, particularly in communities that lack access to advanced purification technologies.