Introduction: The increasing environmental pollution by heavy metals caused serious concern due to the carcinogenicity non biodegradability, and biological accumulation properties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the removal of copper as a heavy metal by using camel bone powder from wastewater.

Methods: The process of copper absorption by powdered camel bone was performed in laboratory and batch mode. Effects of various parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent amount of copper concentration on the adsorption efficiency were studied. In order to better understand the equilibrium adsorption isotherms of Freundlich and Langmuir were assessed. All experiments were repeated three times and mean values reported.

Results: The specific surface area, total pore volume, and mean pore diameter of adsorbent were determined to 89.8 m2/g, 0.41 m3/g, and 1.1-2 mm, respectively. The results showed that the best performance of camel bone powder for copper removal (99%) was attained at a dose of 0.3 mg/L, pH 8, and contact time of 20 min. The equilibrium data fitted well with the Freundlich model (R2= 0.985). The results revealed that copper absorption was affected by factors such as initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, and pH. The maximum adsorption was obtained at pH 8.

Conclusion: Accordingly, the camel bone powder is an efficient, low cost, and promising option adsorbent for removal of different concentrations of copper from water and waste water.