3. Results
Biosorption of heavy metal ions onto the surface of a biological
material is affected by several factors, such as biomass concentration,
initial pH, initial metal ion concentration, time and temperature.
3.1. Effect of biomass concentration
The number of sites available for biosorption depends upon the
amount of the adsorbent. The effect of the biosorbent concentration
on the metal removal efficiency is presented in Fig. 1. The metal ions
uptake was found to increase linearly with the increasing concentration
of the biosorbent up to the biomass concentration of 10 g/L.
Beyond this dosage, the increase in removal efficiency was lower.
Increasing the biosorbent dosage caused a wise in the biomass surface
area and in the number of potential binding sites.