Biosorption of aquatic copper (II) by mushroom biomass Pleurotus eryngii: kinetic and isotherm studies.

Biosorption is an effective method for removing heavy metals from effluent. This work mainly aimed to evaluate the adsorption performance of the widely cultivated novel mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii, for the removal of Cu(II) from single aqueous solutions. Kinetics and equilibria were obtained using a batch technique. The sorption kinetics follows the pseudo-second-order model, whereas the adsorption equilibria are best described by the Langmuir model. The adsorption process is exothermic because both the Langmuir-estimated biosorption capacity and the heat of adsorption estimated from the Temkin model decreased with increasing tested temperature. Based on the adsorption intensity estimated by the Freundlich model and the mean adsorption free energy estimated by the Dubinin-Radushkevich model, the type of adsorption is defined as physical adsorption. The biomass of the macro-fungus P. eryngii has the potential to remove Cu(II) from a large-scale wastewater contaminated by heavy metals, because of its favorable adsorption, short biosorption equilibrium time of 20 min and remarkable biosorption capacity (15.19 mg g⁻¹ as calculated by the Langmuir model). The adsorbed metal-enriched mushroom is a high-quality bio-ore by the virtue of its high metal content of industrial mining grade and easy metal extractability.