
Utilization of agricultural waste as an alternative approach for removing heavy metals from industrial effluents has gained popularity. This study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of banana peel powder (BPP) as an adsorbent for the removal of zinc and copper metal ions from aqueous solutions. Banana peels were dried, grounded and sieved to uniform sizes of 150m powder. Biosorption experiments were carried out in batches for each metal at variable pH (3 – 8), adsorbent dosage (0.5 – 2 g/l) and contact time (10 – 90 min) using one parameter at-a-time approach. The highest removal of Zn (II) ions observed was 96 % at pH of 8, dosage of 1 g/l in 60 min. However, for Cu (II) ions, the highest was 71 % at pH of 6, dosage of 1 g/l in 60 min. The results consistently showed that banana peel is far more effective in removing zinc than copper. The equilibrium adsorptions of both zinc and copper were best described by the Langmuir isotherms with correlation coefficients of 0.96 and 0.98 respectively. The results further showed that adsorption of zinc followed pseudo-first-order kinetics while copper was best described with pseudo-second-order kinetics. The data of FT-IR spectrum confirmed the presence of ionisable functional groups (i.e., amino, carboxyl, and hydroxyl), which were able to interact with zinc and copper metal ions. These results suggest that banana peel can be used as an effective adsorbent for removing heavy metals such as zinc and copper ions from aqueous solution.
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