Adsorption performance of nickel and cadmium ions onto brewer's yeast

The brewer's yeast was used as adsorbent for the removal of Ni(II) and Cd(II) metal ions from aqueous solution. The surface of the brewer's yeast had three main functional groups of sulfonate, carboxyl, and amine groups. The pH of solution played an important role on the uptake of metal ions, and optimum adsorption was obtained at pH 6. Acid solution (pH 3) was efficient for the desorption of Ni(II) and Cd(II) ions from loaded brewer's yeast and the desorption efficiency was higher than 90%. The rate of metal ions adsorption onto brewer's yeast was rapid with short contact time. The kinetics of the adsorption process was found to follow the pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to fit the experimental data with Langmuir isotherm model having a better fit. The maximum uptakes of Ni(II) and Cd(II) by brewer's yeast were estimated to be 5.34 and 10.17 mg/g, respectively.