Biosorption of lead(II) onto pine cone powder: Studies on biosorption performance and process design to minimize biosorbent mass

Biosorption kinetic modeling is frequently performed on both raw and modified biosorbents and changes in model parameters observed. Comparative studies on the relationship between best fitting model parameters and biosorption performance for raw and modified is scares in literature. In the present study, the effect of surface modification on the kinetic parameters of the best fitting kinetic model (pseudo-second order) for biosorption of lead(II) ions onto Raw and NaOH modified pine cone powder was examined and related with biosorption performance for each sample. Equilibrium biosorption studies performed showed that the Langmuir-1 isotherm gave a better fitting of the equilibrium data for all samples indicating that biosorption sites are homogenous regardless of surface modification. Based on the Langmuir-1 isotherm, a two-stage batch adsorber was designed to predict the minimum biosorbent amount to achieve a specified percentage lead(II) removal. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.