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 (R 2 = 0.998) with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The monolayer adsorption capacity was 27.78 mg/g. The calculated R L 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.

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This study assessed the adsorption capacity of the agro-waste 'cabbage' as a biosorbent in single, binary, ternary and quaternary sorption systems with Cu(II), Pb(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) ions. Dried and ground powder of cabbage waste (CW) was used for the sorption of metals ions. Carboxylic, hydroxyl, and amine groups in cabbage waste were found to be the key functional groups for metal sorption. The adsorption isotherms obtained could be well fitted to both the mono- and multi-metal models. In the competitive adsorption systems, cabbage waste adsorbed larger amount of Pb(II) than the other three metals. However, the presence of the competing ions suppressed the sorption of the target metal ions. Except the case of binary system of Cd(II)-Zn(II) and Cd(II)-Cu(II), there was a linear inverse dependency between the sorption capacities and number of different types of competitive metal ions.

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Arsenic contamination of groundwater has been called the largest mass poisoning calamity in human history and creates severe health problems. The effective adsorbents are imperative in response to the widespread removal of toxic arsenic exposure through drinking water. Evaluation of arsenic(V) removal from water by weak-base anion exchange adsorbents was studied in this paper, aiming at the determination of the effects of pH, competing anions, and feed flow rates to improvement on remediation. Two types of weak-base adsorbents were used to evaluate arsenic(V) removal efficiency both in batch and column approaches. Anion selectivity was determined by both adsorbents in batch method as equilibrium As(V) adsorption capacities. Column studies were performed in fixed-bed experiments using both adsorbent packed columns, and kinetic performance was dependent on the feed flow rate and competing anions. The weak-base adsorbents clarified that these are selective to arsenic(V) over competition of chloride, nitrate, and sulfate anions. The solution pH played an important role in arsenic(V) removal, and a higher pH can cause lower adsorption capacities. A low concentration level of arsenic(V) was also removed by these adsorbents even at a high flow rate of 250-350 h(-1). Adsorbed arsenic(V) was quantitatively eluted with 1 M HCl acid and regenerated into hydrochloride form simultaneously for the next adsorption operation after rinsing with water. The weak-base anion exchange adsorbents are to be an effective means to remove arsenic(V) from drinking water. The fast adsorption rate and the excellent adsorption capacity in the neutral pH range will render this removal technique attractive in practical use in chemical industry.