In this study, the waste pulp of sugar beet remaining from
extraction of sugar was used as metal biosorbent. The pulp
was obtained from the Ankara Sugar Mill, Turkey. Wet sugar
beet pulp was dried at 100 8C until constant weight,
grounded and sieved.
The adsorbent particle size is an important factor in
adsorption kinetics because it determines the time required
for transport of sorbate within the pore to adsorption sites.
The diffusional resistance to mass transfer is greater for
large particles but, the smallest size allows very fast removal
kinetics if the adsorption is to be primarily a surface
phenomenon. Moreover, increasing the surface area due to
small particle size also increases the number of sites, or
indirectly increases the adsorption capacity, so the
preliminary batch biosorption experiments were carried
out using three different particle sizes of 250, 350 and
500 mm. Since the adsorbent of the particle size 500 mm has
a poor adsorption capacity, the adsorbent of the particle size
250 mm was selected for adsorption studies due to its higher
adsorption capacity.