Abstract—The potential of rice straw, agricultural waste, to remove copper (II) from aqueous solution was evaluated in a batch process. Experiments were carried out as function of contact time, initial concentration, pH and temperature. Adsorption isotherms were modeled with the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. The data fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm. The equilibrium biosorption isotherms showed that biosorbent possess high affinity and sorption capacity for Cu(II) ions, with sorption capacities of 74.70 mg Cu2+ per 1 g biomass. Thermodynamic parameters such as free energy change (ΔG°), enthalpy change (ΔH°) and entropy change (ΔS°) have been calculated on the basis of Langmuir constants. The results indicated that the rice straw could be an alternative for more costly adsorbents used for heavy metal removal.

Index Terms—Biosorption, rice straw, biosorbent, wastewater treatment, heavy metal.

Achanai Buasri and Nattawut Chaiyut are with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand and the National Center of Excellence for Petroleum, Petrochemicals and Advanced Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (e-mail: achanai130@hotmail.com; nchaiyut@hotmail.com).
Kessarin Tapang, Supparoek Jaroensin and Sutheera Panphrom are with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.

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Cite: Achanai Buasri, Nattawut Chaiyut, Kessarin Tapang, Supparoek Jaroensin, and Sutheera Panphrom, "Removal of Cu2+ from Aqueous Solution by Biosorption on Rice Straw - an Agricultural Waste Biomass," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 10-14 , 2012.