Abstract
This work presents the removal of heavy metal ions (Cu2+ and Cr3+) from aqueous solutions with the use of pine (Pinus silvestris) sawdust. The experiments were conducted in a batch mode. Kinetic and equilibrium parameters of biosorption – which are best described by pseudo-second order and Langmuir models – were determined. The maximum sorption capacity at pH 5 and a temperature of 20°C for pine sawdust amounted to 21.47 mg/g for Cu2+ ions and 39.63 mg/g for Cr3+ ions, respectively.
Thermodynamic parameters of biosorption were found out; the process of binding of ions turned out to be spontaneous and
endothermic. Four eluents for ions desorption from a used sorbent were proposed of which 0.1M HCl was found to be the most
useful for the purpose. Pine sawdust is a sorbent characterized by a high effectiveness even in four cycles of sorption-desorption.