Cadmium could cause severe toxicant impact to living beings and is especially mobile in the environment. Biomass is abundant and effective to adsorb heavy metals, but is easy to be decomposed biologically which affects the reliability of long-run application. Several biomasses were charred with and without additives at temperatures less than 200 degrees C in this study. The prepared adsorbents were further testified to remove Cd(II) from aqueous solution. Equilibrium and kinetic studies were performed in batch conditions. The effect of several experimental parameters on the cadmium adsorption kinetics namely: contact time, initial cadmium concentration, sorbent dose, initial pH of solution and ionic strength was evaluated. Kinetic study confirmed (1) the rapid adsorption of Cd(II) on GC within 10 min and (2) the following gradual intraparticle diffusion inwards the sorbent at neutral pH and outwards at strong acidic solution. The grass char (GC) was selected for further test according to its high adsorption capacity (115.8 mg g(-1)) and affinity (Langmuir type isotherm). The Cd(II) removal efficiency was increased with increasing solution pH while the highest achieved at sorbent dosage 10.0gL(-1). The ionic strength affects the sorption of Cd(II) on GC to a limited extent whereas calcium resulted in larger competition to the sorption sites than potassium. Spectroscopic investigation revealed the adsorption mechanisms between Cd(II) and surface functional groups involving amine, carboxyl and iron oxide. The long-term stability of the pyrolyzed grass char and the potential application in engineering practices were discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.