Removal of copper from water by adsorption onto banana peel as bioadsorbent

Banana peel, a fruit waste were used to produce bioadsorbent through environment friendly process. It were cut, washed, dried, grounded into powder and used for copper removal. Copper adsorption onto banana peel was depended upon the controlling parameters such as particle size, doses, pH, contact time, agitation speed and temperature. Slightly acidic water (pH = 6) was found to be suitable for copper removal. Equilibrium data were well fitted (R2 = 0.998) with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The monolayer adsorption capacity was 27.78 mg/g. The calculated RL and 'n' values has proved the favorability of copper adsorption onto banana peel. Copper adsorption was followed the second order kinetic properly rather than other models. The equilibrium adsorption capacity was 1.439, 8.849, 18.182, 31.250 and 71.429 mg/g when initial copper concentrations were 10, 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg/l respectively. Solvent 0.1N Sulphuric acid showed higher desorption of copper (94%) and adsorption-desorption process can be continued till seven cycles efficiently. © 2012, International Journal of GEOMATE