Converting peanut shells into biochar by pyrolysis was considered an environmentally friendly and efficient method for agricultural solid waste disposal. The properties of peanut shell-derived biochar (PBC) under different temperature and its adsorption capacity of heavy metals were investigated. It was found that PBC400 exhibited the highest cumulative capability for heavy metals elimination in single solute because of its high specific surface area and rich functional groups. Furthermore, the competitive adsorption revealed that PBC had a substantial difference in adsorption affinity from diverse heavy metal ions, sorption capacity decreased as Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Cd2+ > Ni2+ > Zn2+, which was lower than in a single solute. The adsorption process using selected biochar was optimized with respect to pH, reaction time, adsorbent dose, and initial concentration of heavy metals. The kinetic data was well fitted with PSO model, and the Langmuir model was adopted for adsorption equilibrium data in both cases of single solutes and mixed solutes for all heavy metals, which indicated that the removal course was primarily explained by monolayer adsorption, and chemical adsorption occupied an important role. Therefore, peanut shells derived biochar could be a potential and green adsorbent for wastewater treatment. (C) 2020 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.