Citrus peel biosorbents are efficient in removing heavy metals from wastewater. Heavy metal recovery and sorbent regeneration are important for the financial competitiveness of biosorption with other processes. The desorbing agents HNO3, NaNO3, Ca(NO3)(2), EDTA, S. S-EDDS, and Na-Citrate were studied at different concentrations to optimize cadmium elution from orange or grapefruit peels. In most cases, desorption was fast, being over 90% complete within 50 min. However sodium nitrate and 0.001 M nitric acid were less efficient. Several new models for desorption kinetics were developed. While zero-, first- and second-order kinetics are commonly applied for modeling adsorption kinetics, the present study adapts these models to describe desorption kinetics. The proposed models relate to the number of metal-filled binding sites as the rate-determining reactant concentration. A model based on first order kinetics with respect to the remaining metal bound performed best. Cd bound in subsequent adsorption after desorption was similar to the original amount bound for desorption by nitric acid, but considerably lower for calcium nitrate as the desorbent. While complexing agents were effective desorbents, their cost is higher than that of common mineral acids. Thus 0.01-0.1 M acids are the most promising desorbing agents for efficient sorbent regeneration. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.