Spent Saccharomyces cerevisiae biomass, from beer manufacturing industry, was used as filler for preparing porous composite epoxy beads. The beads were formed by ionotropic gelation of a mixture of the biomass and epoxy matrix components in sodium alginate solution, by injection into a CaCl2 solution. The soft beads were partially cured and then the alginate partially dissolved by precipitation of the cross-linking Ca2+ ions as a phosphate salt. The porous material thus obtained was cured again to its final form. The finished beads were used as chelation-ion-exchange sorbent for Pb2+ (and Cd2+) as a model of heavy metal ions, from 100 to 350 ppm aqueous solutions with good metal sorption efficiency. The preparation was followed by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Analysis by X-ray analyses and the influence of several experimental parameters (composition, filler type, amine/epoxy ratio and cure conditions) on bead morphology and metal sorption efficiency were assessed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.