Contemporary Engineering Sciences, Vol. 11, 2018, no.

21, 1033 - 1041

HIKARI Ltd, www.m-hikari.com
https://doi.org/10.12988/ces.2018.8390

Comparison of Banana Peel Biosorbents

for the Removal of Cr (VI) from Water

Candelaria Tejada-Tovar1, Ángel González-Delgado2, Ángel Villabona-Ortíz1

1
Chemical Engineering Department, Process Design and Biomass Utilization
Research Group (IDAB)
2
Nanomaterials and Computer Aided Process Engineering Research Group
(NIPAC)
University of Cartagena
Chemical Engineering Department
Avenida del Consulado Calle 30 No. 48-152
Cartagena, Colombia

Copyright © 2018 Candelaria Tejada-Tovar et al. This article is distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Sorbents materials preparation from agricultural waste has received much attention
as an effective alternative in wastewater treatment. In this work, the adsorptive
removal of hexavalent chromium Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions was investigated
by banana peels-based biosorbents (BP and BP-Chitosan). The effects of pH and
adsorbent dosage on removal yield was also studied to identify suitable conditions
for performing adsorption process. The banana peels biomass was characterized by
elemental analysis and coated with chitosan under acetic acid solution. To carry out
batch experiments, initial pH was adjusted to 3, 4 and 5 and concentration of
adsorbent in Cr (VI) solution was varied in 2, 4 and 6 g/L. It was found that BP
biosorbent exhibited higher removal yield than BP-Chitosan for all pH and dosage
values, which can be attributed to absence of chemical interaction after coating. In
addition, suitable operating conditions for achieving maximum Cr (VI) uptake of
93.35 % were found to be pH 3 and dosage 6 g/L. Hence, banana peels biomass can
be widely used as efficient and low-cost biosorbent for removing heavy metals ions.

Keywords: Biosorbent, banana peels, adsorption, removal yield

1034 Candelaria Tejada-Tovar et al.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, the rapid development of modern industry all over the world has
increased water pollution becoming an issue of major concern [1, 2]. Most of the
metals are known to be toxic as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel,
selenium, silver and zinc [3]. Chromium is widely used for electroplating, metal
processing, metallurgy, leather tanning, pigments and various other industries [4,
5]. In order to remove heavy metal ions from water sources, different methods have
been applied such as membrane, ion exchange, adsorption, and coagulation or
precipitation treatment [6]. Among these, adsorption has been reported to be a
viable and efficient alternative [7]. Many residues from traditional crops have been
intensively investigated as adsorbents [8]. This technology has shown great
potential for the treatment of wastewater as it has many advantages like low cost,
easy operability, abundant availability [9]. In this work, banana peels-based
biosorbents were used for Cr (VI) ions uptake in order to mitigate the environmental
impacts of heavy metals in water sources and valorize an agroindustrial waste.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Preparation of biosorbent

Banana (Musa paradisiacal) peels were collected from local fruit fields, separated
from bananas and cut into smaller pieces while still wet. The peels were washed
thoroughly with water and ethanol in order to remove surface adhered particles and
water-soluble materials and then dried in an oven at 90°C during 24 hours. Dried
peels were ground and sieved to obtain a particle size of 0.325 mm.

2.2. Coating with chitosan

The modification of banana peels with chitosan was carried out by treating biomass
with chitosan (85% practical grade purchased from Sigma Aldrich) according to the
procedure described by Babel & Kurniawan[10]. The chitosan was immersed to
acetic acid solution under continuous stirring at 150 rpm in order to form 0.5 % vol.
mixture. Afterwards, biomass was dipped into the gel previously obtained (dose
ratio of chitosan and BP= 1:5) and shaken overnight at 150 rpm. The contents were
washed with distilled water and dried. This procedure was repeated three times in
order to obtain a thick layer of chitosan on banana biomass. The chitosan gel beads
(BP-Chitosan) were then neutralized with 0.5 % (w/v) NaOH solution and
extensively rinsed with deionized water and dried.

2.3. Characterization of biosorbents

The resulting banana peels-based biosorbents (BP, AC-BP and BP-Chitosan) were
characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) in order to
determine the surface functional groups. The spectra were recorded in the 500-4000
Comparison of banana peel biosorbents … 1035

cm-1 range at a resolution of 4 cm-1. Elemental analysis was also carried out
according to methods summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Analytical methods for chemical characterization

Parameter Method
Carbon (%) AOAC 949.14
Hydrogen (%) AOAC 949.14
Nitrogen (%) AOAC 984.13
Sulfur (ppm) Digestion
Ashes Thermogravimetric analysis

2.4. Batch adsorption experiments

Stock solution of cadmium (100 ppm) was prepared by separately dissolving

appropriate quantity of analytical grade potassium dichromate (Sigma-Aldrich) in
deionized water. Standard solutions were obtained by dilutions of this stock
solution. Batch equilibrium experiments were performed to determine the
adsorptive performance of banana peels biosorbents on the removal of Cr (VI) from
aqueous solution. The effect of solution pH was studied by adjusting initial pH to
3, 4 and 5 using either NaOH and HCl (0.1 M) solutions. Biosorbent amounts (2, 4
and 6 g/L) were mixed with chromium solution in a flask placed on a stirrer plate
at 34°C and 180 rpm during 1 hour. The remaining Cr (VI) ions concentration
after adsorption was determined by Shimdzu UV 1700, UV–visible
spectrophotometer with 1,5-diphenylcarbazide in acidic medium. A purple-violet
colored complex was obtained in the reaction between Cr(VI) and 1,5-
diphenylcarbazide detectable colorimetrically[10]. The removal yield was
calculated using Equation 1.

(𝐶0 − 𝐶𝑒 )
𝑅= ∙ 100% (1)
𝐶0

Where 𝐶0 (mg/L) is the initial concentration of heavy metal ions, 𝐶𝑒 (mg/L) the
concentration at equilibrium and 𝑉 is the volume of the sample (L).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Characterization of biosorbents: The elemental composition of banana peels
biomass is shown in Figure 1. As is observed, carbon element exhibited the greatest
contribution, followed by ashes and hydrogen. These results were expected due to
the presence of complex organic polymers in chemical composition of this material.
Pathak et al. [11] reported similar values for ultimate analysis: C (wt%) 40.24, H
(wt%) 6.14, N (wt%) 1.3 and S (wt%) 0.098.
1036 Candelaria Tejada-Tovar et al.

40
35
30
Composition

25
20
15
10
5
0
Carbon (%) Nitrogen (%) Hydrogen (%) Sulfur (ppm) Ashes (%)

Figure 1. Ultimate analysis of banana peels biomass

FT-IR spectra of BP and BP-Chitosan are shown in Figure 2. In BP spectrum, the

broad and intense absorption peaks at 3433.7 cm-1 was attributed to O-H or amine
(–NH) groups while the C-H group was identified at 2927.6 cm-1 [12]. The bands
at 1634.5 cm-1 and 996.5 cm-1 are due to C=O bond of carboxylic acid and alcoholic
C-O stretching vibration [13]. The characteristic bands of banana peels biosorbent
is similar to that of previous reported by Carvalho et al. [14]. These results were
expected due to the BP biomass contains polymers (hemicellulose, pectin and
lignin) that are rich in organic functional groups such as COOH and OH [15].

a)
% Transmittance

2927.6
426.7
b) 1634.5
996.5
3433.7

2919.63

3457.7 607.62
1653.67 1018.56

3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500

-1
Wavelength (cm )

Figure 2. FT-IR spectra for: a) BP and b) BP-Chitosan biosorbents

As it is observed from Figure 2-b), coating with chitosan did not affect significantly
the banana peels biosorbent spectrum. It is noted an increase in the intensity of
1018.56 cm-1 assigned to secondary alcohol groups that are present in chitosan
molecule [16]. The displacement to the left of many peaks in BP-Chitosan spectrum
is due to chitosan exhibits adsorption bands at higher wavelength than banana peels.
Comparison of banana peel biosorbents … 1037

From literature, chitosan presents the broad band of O-H and N-H stretching and
extension vibrations around 3500 cm-1 while characteristic band of C=O is
identified at 1650 cm-1 [17].

3.2. Batch adsorption experiments

The adsorption experimental data were used to calculate removal yield according
to Equation 1. The effects of initial pH and biosorbent dosage were shown in
Figures 3 and 4, respectively.

Effect of pH: The initial pH of solution is an important operating variable in

adsorption process because of its influence on ion speciation and surface properties
of the biosorbents [18]. As is shown in Figure 3, the removal yield decreased as pH
increased, which suggested that adsorption process is more favourable under acid
conditions. It was found that pH 3 is the optimum value for the maximum Cr (VI)
ions removal. At an acidic pH, chromium ions are present in two forms: as H2CrO4
(pH 1-2) and HCrO4- (pH 3-7) [19]. Hence, the electrostatic attraction of the sorbent
surface and HCrO4- enhanced Cr (VI) ions uptake at pH 3. Similar results were
reported by Ali et al. [20] for Cr (VI) removal using chemically modified banana
peels, they pointed out that at higher pH the surface of adsorbent becomes
negatively charged while at lower pH, the adsorbent (BP) surface is protonated
improving electrostatic attractions with oxyanions of hexavalent chromium.

100
90 BP BP-Chitosan
80
Removal yield (%)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
3 4 5
pH
Figure 3. Effects of pH on Cr (VI) ions removal yield using BP and BP-Chitosan
biosorbents.

For all batch experiments at different pH, it was observed that BP biosorbent
exhibited better performance in adsorption process than BP-Chitosan biosorbent
indicating that coating banana peels biomass with this biopolymer reduced
adsorption sites available to interact with Cr (VI) ions. The modification with chitosan
1038 Candelaria Tejada-Tovar et al.

expected to provide better results due to the presence of hydroxyl groups of glucose
units and functional groups in its structure that have been reported to increase
adsorption capacity of materials [21]. However, chemical interactions between
chitosan and banana peels biomass were not observed in FT-IR spectra indicating
that this biopolymer just covered BP surface.

Effect of biosorbent dosage: Results showed in Figure 4 for adsorption of Cr (VI)

using different dosage in the range 2-6 g/L at pH 3 indicated that the adsorption
efficiency is highly dependent on quantity of adsorbent added [22]. It was observed
that highest removal yield was reached at 6 g/L, which is due to the increase in
adsorbent amount increases the number of available active site for the uptake of
metal ions [20]. At higher dosage, the number of such sites per unit mass comes
down because of aggregation and thus flocculation of adsorbent particles [23]. In
brief, suitable operational conditions, recommended for further experiments, are pH
3 and dosage 6 g/L for BP.

100
90 BP BP-Chitosan
80
Removal yield (%)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2 4 6
Dosage (g/L)
Figure 4. Effects of dosage on Cr (VI) ions removal yield using BP and BP-
Chitosan biosorbents.

4. Conclusions
This work was focused on studying the Cr (VI) ions removal using banana peels-
based biosorbents (BP and BP-Chitosan) in order to reduce the environmental
impacts of heavy metals water pollutants and valorize agroindustrial wastes. It was
found from elemental analysis that banana peels biomass is mainly composed by
carbon, which is presented in complex organic polymers of this biomass. FT-IR
spectra for both biosorbents indicated the presence of OH, C-H, C=O, -NH and C-
O groups characteristic of lignocellulosic materials and biopolymers as chitosan.
The maximum Cr (VI) ions uptake of 93.35% was achieved under suitable operational
Comparison of banana peel biosorbents … 1039

conditions (pH 3 and dosage 6 g/L) using BP biosorbent, which suggested that
coating with chitosan affects significantly the performance of this biomass for
removing heavy metal ions. In brief, banana peels biomass represents an attractive
alternative in Cr (VI) adsorption process due to its high efficiency and low cost.

Acknowledgements. Authors express their gratitude to University of Cartagena

for providing financial support to develop this research.

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Received: March 23, 2018; Published: April 23, 2018