Desorption of Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ from Nipa palm ( Nypa fruticans Wurmb ) biomass

The desorption of Pb2+ and Cu2+ from Nypa frutican Wurmb biomass originally loaded with these two metals in a batch adsorption experiment was investigated using acidic, basic and neutral desorption solutions. The metal-loaded biomass was treated with 0.1 M HCl, 0.1 M NaOH and distilled water at varying contact time. The data shows that desorption in all the reagent increased with increase in contact time, reaching 75.3 and 63.7% in acid reagent, 18.9 and 14.06% in basic reagent and 3.35 and 2.44% in distilled water for Pb2+ and Cu2+, respectively, at a contact time of 140 min. The desorption kinetic showed that the release constant, kdes, for both metal ion in acidic system was faster (6.3 x 102 and 7. 9 x 102 min-1 for Pb2+ and Cu2+) than other desorption reagents.