Comparative Bio-sorption of Cadmium and Nickel Ions from Aqueous Solution onto Fibers of Date Palm using Fluidized Bed Column

The aim of this study is to use the dry fibers of date palm as low-cost biosorbent for the removal of Cd(II), and Ni(II) ions from aqueous solution by fluidized bed column. The effects of many operating conditions such as superficial velocity, static bed height, and initial concentration on the removal efficiency of metal ions were investigated. FTIR analyses clarified that hydroxyl, amine and carboxyl groups could be very effective for bio-sorption of these heavy metal ions. SEM images showed that dry fibers of date palm have a high porosity and that metal ions can be trapped and sorbed into pores. The results show that a bed height of 6 cm, velocity of 1.1Umf and initial concentration for each heavy metal ions of 50 mg/L are most feasible and give high removal efficiency. The fluidized bed reactor was modeled using ideal plug flow and this model was solved numerically by utilizing the MATLAB software for fitting the measured breakthrough results. The breakthrough curves for metal ions gave the order of bio-sorption capacity as follow: Cd(II)]Ni(II).