The mycelial growth kinetics, cadmium biosorption capacity and main governing biosorption mechanism of Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) have been determined in this study. The fungus mycelium exhibits a sigmoidal (S-shaped) growth curve in which the growth rates for the lag and exponential phases are 0.1 and 0.31 g/L.day, respectively. The grown fungus is subjected to elemental, infra-red and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analyses while biosorption data are fitted to established adsorption isotherm models, namely, Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich. It is strongly suggested that the main governing mechanism involved is chemisorption due to good fitting of biosorption data to Langmuir and Dubinin-Radushkevich models with possibility of involvement of both ion exchange and complexation. Data presented in the study are very useful for design of future pilot-or industrial-scale biosorption water purification system.Running title: Biosorption of cadmium using Pleurotus ostreatus

The potential of Pleurotus ostreatus as biosorbent for cadmium (II) removal was investigated. The maximum cadmium (II) removal was found to be at 85%, under the optimum condition of 0.5 g Pleurotus ostreatus biosorbent concentration, initial pH 6, 10 minutes contact time, 10 mg/L cadmium (II) concentration in 50 mL solution, at 125 rpm on orbital shaker and at room temperature (26 ± 1 °C). The application of Pleurotus ostreatus as biosorbent in electroplating industrial wastewater was also investigated. This study is pivotal for further modeling and scaled up pilot study in alternative sustainable heavy metals removal technology development by deploying Pleurotus ostreatus biosorbent.