Engineered Fruit Peel Biosorbents for Circular and Sustainable Water Treatment

In light of global freshwater systems, engineering breaking points with 2.1 billion people without access to clean drinking water in 2026, this PRISMA conformant systematic review, presents a detailed exploration of the development of fruit peels as biosorbents, as a circular resource recovery system on an industrial scale. Findings indicate that customized lignocellulose biosorbents, in combination with artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms, and proper chemical equipment, can extract up 99% of rare earth elements from water resources, turning them into highly selective resource recovery material. In order to tackle the challenge of secondary waste generation, a circular biorefinery strategy is proposed, whereby used sorbent material is transformed into biofuel or ceramics. This allows for negative emissions and 80% cost savings in comparison with traditional methods. This study identifies a road map for commercializing the technology, drawing upon information gained through analyzing the global patent landscape and the evolving regulatory regime, including EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List CCL 6 in the United States. The shift from traditional empirical testing to AI driven predictive modeling serves as a strategic blueprint for researchers, significantly accelerating the design of high performance engineered bioadsorbents for complex wastewater scenarios, while bridging the gap between fundamental surface chemistry and industrial scalability.