Anaerobic digested (AD) corn stover collected from a lab-scale reactor was used as bioadsorbent to remove the heavy metal in aqueous solution. Effects of contact time and initial heavy metal concentrations on the removal process of Cu2+ and Cd2+ were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacities of AD corn stover obtained from Langmuir isotherm models were 83.3 and 50.0 mg/g for Cu2+ and Cd2+, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was also used to investigate the surface characteristic of raw and heavy metal loaded AD corn stover. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.