Dr. Aparna Gunjal has completed her M.Sc. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences. She has ten years and 12 years of research experience. She has 190 research papers to her credit, and one German patent is granted. She has 15 National and International awards to her credit. She is an Editor and Reviewer for many National and International journals. She is a Life member of the Biotech Research Society India (BRSI) and the Indian Women Scientist Association (IWSA).
The heavy metals are toxic and cause water and soil pollution. These heavy metals are cadmium, lead, zinc, arsenic, chromium, nickel, mercury, etc. The chemical methods for removing heavy metals from contaminated soils and wastewater have disadvantages. The bioadsorption is an easy, eco-friendly, and cheap method for removing heavy metals from contaminated soils, aqueous solutions, wastewater, etc. The work here describes the kinetics study for bioadsorption of heavy metals by the agroindustry by-products viz., peanut shell, corn cob, sawdust, paddy husk, and pressmud. The Langmuir and Freundlich equations and constants were studied. The study showed the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models best fit the experimental data for the adsorption of heavy metals viz., Zn, Cd, Pb, and Ni. The study indicates second-order pseudo kinetics is obeyed.