Nickel (II) sorption from aqueous media by Agave salmiana as biosorbent

In this work, the removal of nickel from aqueous solutions by Agave salmiana was investigated. For this purpose the removal of this heavy metal (Ni2+) was carried out in a batch system as a function of contact time, pH, and the initial concentration of the metallic specie in solution. The sorption data were fitted to pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models to found the parameteres which describe the processes. It was found that the maximum sorption of the Agave for Ni2+ was at pH 10 and pseudo-second order kinetic model well described the biosorption behavior of this heavy metal by the non-living biomass. Furthermore, the maximum sorption capacity obtained from the isotherm was 10 mgNi/gAgave.