Production and characterization of carbon-based adsorbents from waste lignocellulosic biomass: their effectiveness in heavy metal removal

Abstract

In this study, hazelnut shell and walnut shell which are the agricultural wastes existent abundantly in many countries were pyrolyzed at different temperatures in the temperature range of 400–700 °C in order to optimize the physicochemical properties of biochars. The biochars with large surface area were used to removal of lead (Pb2+) ions, one of the most important heavy metal pollutant, from aqueous solutions. The characterization of raw biomass and also biochars produced by pyrolysis were performed using FT-IR, BET, SEM, partial and elemental analysis techniques. In order to determine the adsorption characteristics of both biochars, batch adsorption experiments were carried out under different experimental conditions. The optimum conditions were determined by investigating the effect of adsorption parameters (initial heavy metal concentration, temperature, adsorbent amount, pH, contact time and mixing speed) for efficient removal of Pb2+ ions from aqueous solution. The experimental results were investigated in terms of Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models. Together with the calculated thermodynamic parameters, the adsorption mechanism was tried to be explained. In order to determine the kinetic model of the adsorption process, the experimental data were applied to pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order and intra-particle diffusion model, and the model constants were investigated.