REMOVAL OF COPPER AND NICKEL IONES WITH PEANUT SHELL

In the present work, the removal of copper and nickel ions using peanut hulls by batch tests in mono-component and bi-component systems (simultaneous removal tests) was studied. This study evaluated the effect of pH, contact time, biosorbent concentration and metal ion concentration. The results showed that the peanut hulls were a relatively effective biosorbent in the removal of ions, obtaining removals between 4.3% to 68.3% for copper ions and 3.6% to 47.6% for nickel ions. The maximum removal of copper and nickel ions was reached at pH 3. Sorption kinetics of both ions occurs rapidly during the first 15 minutes with eliminations close to 60.0% for copper and 43.0% for nickel, however, maximum adsorption values are reached after 30 minutes (copper) and 60 minutes (nickel). It was observed that as the concentration of the biosorbent increases the elimination of the copper and nickel ions decreases slightly. Simultaneous removal tests showed that the removal of nickel ions (45.7%) was lower than of copper ions (69.9%), these results were very similar to those achieved in the individual removal test of both ions.