This study was undertaken to investigate biosorption kinetics and equilibria of lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) ions using the biomass of Enterobacter sp. J1 isolated from a local industry wastewater treatment plant. Efficiency of metal ion recovery from metal-loaded biomass to regenerate the biosorbent was also determined. The results show that Enterobacter sp. J1 was able to uptake over 50 mg of Pb per gram of dry cell, while having equilibrium adsorption capacities of 32.5 and 46.2 mg/g dry cell for Cu and Cd, respectively. In general, Langmuir and Freundlich models were able to describe biosorption isotherm fairly well, except that prediction of Pb adsorption was relatively poor with Langmuir model, suggesting a different mechanism for Pb biosorption. Adjusting the pH value to 3.0 led to nearly complete desorption of Cd from metal-loaded biomass, while over 90% recovery of Pb and Cu ions was obtained at pH <= 2. After four repeated adsorption/desorption cycles, biomass of Enterobacter sp. J1 retained 75, 79 and 90% of original capacity for adsorption of Pb, Cu and Cd, respectively, suggesting good reusability of the biosorbent. A combinative model was proposed to describe the kinetics of heavy-metal adsorption by Enterobacter sp. J1 and the model appeared to have an excellent prediction of the experimental data. The model simulation results also seemed to suggest that intracellular accumulation may occur during the uptake of Pb. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.