Oxidation-adsorption treatments were applied to improve the biodegradability of wastewater from the manufacture of acrylic resins with methyl methacrylate (MMA). MMA wastewater has an extremely complex composition, with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 651.25-g O-2/L, total organic carbon (TOC) concentration of 227.86 g/L, N-NH3 concentration of 48.80 g/L, and 352,500-PtCo units. In this study, the effects of operating parameters that include the Fenton reagent dosage, the initial pH, and the reaction time of the treatment efficiencies of the Fenton oxidation process were observed. The improvement in the biodegradability was attributed to the removal of ammonium and organic pollutants from the wastewater, which was confirmed using infrared spectroscopy. After this process, adsorption of organic matter from wastewater was also studied; kinetic and equilibrium adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the effect of the contact time and pH. Pseudo-second-order kinetics represented the experimental data well, and Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were tested to represent the data. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained was q(m) = 1.15 g/g for TOC and 11.65 g/g for COD at optimum conditions. The removal efficiencies of the Fenton adsorption treatment were 96% of color, 58% of TOC, and 60% COD. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.