Biosorbent from Industrial Hemp Hurds for Copper Ions Removal

Screening a new biosorbent with low-cost and high efficiency from a biological waste material is a key to the adsorption of heavy metal ions from wastewater. The biosorbent from industrial hemp hurds was prepared from waste materials. In this study, the potential of this biosorbent has been investigated in removing of Cu(II) ions from the aqueous solution under optimized conditions. Waste material biosorbent was activated by hydrochloric acid in room temperature. The synthesized biosorbent was characterized by SEM, EDX, specific surface area and pore size distribution. The impact of pH, contact time and initial concentration on the pollutant removal efficiency was observed. The sorption kinetics were evaluated with pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic models. Adsorption process has been modeled by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms using linear regression. The results of this study indicated that the application of hemp hurds of Cannabis sativa waste material as a biosorbent is highly effective for the removal copper ions from wastewater.