245 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 R. N. Bharagava (ed.), Emerging Eco-friendly Green Technologies for Wastewater Treatment, Microorganisms for Sustainability 18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1390-9_11 Chapter 11 Biopolymers and Their Application in Wastewater Treatment Jyoti Pandey Abstract Due to heavy industrialization and urbanization, the conservation of the environment has become increasingly important in view of the raised ecological problems. The discharge of huge quantities of effuents from industries and munici- palities into rivers and lakes makes the condition vulnerable for sustainable life. The presence of organic toxics such as dyes and heavy metals, such as chromium, mer- cury, cadmium, cobalt, copper, nickel, lead, zinc and tin, in our water resources may cause serious health hazards to living organisms. Various technologies for removal of toxic chemicals and ions from industrial and agricultural effuents have been introduced such as adsorption, coagulation, focculation, precipitation, co- precipitation, solvent extraction, ion exchange and membrane technology. However, most of these techniques require synthetic toxic reagents which are expensive too and hence the capital cost for treatment increases. The wide availability, biodegrad- ability, non-toxicity and relatively inexpensiveness of biopolymers present an attractive alternative to such toxic synthetic and chemical products. In this context, several biopolymers were chemically refned to work as cationic or anionic agents for wastewater treatment. The book chapter summarizes the research carried out on the use of biopolymers to remove heavy metal and toxic chemicals from solutions and effuents. The various biopolymers (e.g. cellulose, chitosan, tannin, alginate, gums and mucilage), their classifcation, mechanisms of action, factors and their application in wastewater treatment in the scientifc literature are analysed and compiled. Keywords Industries · Wastewater · Biopolymers · Application · Treatment J. Pandey (*) Department of Chemistry, School of Physical and Decision Sciences (SPDS), Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (Central University), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India