Activated Carbon Derived from Egyptian Banana Peels for Removal of Cadmium from Water

This study was conducted to investigate the removal of cadmium (II) from aqueous solution by using low cost, natural and eco-friendly biosorbent of Banana peels Activated Carbon (BPAC) through batch experiments. The Activated Carbon was characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM with EDX. Various adsorption parameters such as effect of pH, amount of the biomass, initial concentration of Cadmium ion and contact time on the adsorption capacity of the biosorbent were studied. Biosorption experiments were carried out at the temperature of 25ºC. The percent removal of Cadmium ions was 98.35% from synthetic wastewater. These results were observed at the optimum dose of 0.8 g at pH 4.0. The removal of Cadmium ions from wastewater is mainly influenced by pH of the synthetic wastewater and the amount of biosorbent dose. The equilibrium adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and the model parameters were evaluated. The kinetic study showed that the pseudo-second order kinetic model better described the biosorption process. These results demonstrated that the Banana peels could be used as a natural biosorbent for removal of Cadmium from aqueous solution.