Biochar from Agricultural by-Products for the Removal of Lead and Cadmium from Drinking Water Pineda Puglla, Edgar Iván Osorio Robles, Francisco García-Ruiz, María Jesús Peanut shell Chonta Pulp Corn cob Biochars Adsorption Lead Cadmium Drinking water This study reports the adsorption capacity of lead Pb2+ and cadmium Cd2+ of biochar obtained from: peanut shell (BCM), “chonta” pulp (BCH) and corn cob (BZM) calcined at 500, 600 and 700 ◦C, respectively. The optimal adsorbent dose, pH, maximum adsorption capacity and adsorption kinetics were evaluated. The biochar with the highest Pb2+ and Cd2+ removal capacity is obtained from the peanut shell (BCM) calcined at 565 ◦C in 45 min. The optimal experimental conditions were: 14 g L−1 (dose of sorbent) and pH between 5 and 7. The sorption experimental data were best fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model. High removal rates were obtained: 95.96% for Pb2+ and 99.05. for Cd2+. The BCH and BZM revealed lower efficiency of Pb2+ and Cd2+ removal than BCM biochar. The results suggest that biochar may be useful for the removal of heavy metals (Pb2+ and Cd2+) from drinking water. 2020-11-23T12:41:31Z 2020-11-23T12:41:31Z 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Puglla EP, Guaya D, Tituana C, Osorio F, García-Ruiz MJ. Biochar from Agricultural by-Products for the Removal of Lead and Cadmium from Drinking Water. Water. 2020; 12(10):2933. [https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102933] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/64452 10.3390/w12102933 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI