Millimeter sized hydrothermal carbon beads (HCB) with excellent acidic resistance and enhanced adsorption performance for Cr(VI) was obtained via hydrothermal treatment of chitosan beads (CSB). Their physicochemical properties were comparatively characterized by Raman spectra, FT-IR, elemental composition analysis, SEM, N-2 adsorption-desorption and XPS. The static adsorption shows that the HCB-180 obtained at 180 degrees C can reduce Cr(VI) concentration from 20 to 0.3 mg L-1 (less than the Chinese standards for industrial wastewater discharge), while CSB can only reduce it to 4.7 mg L-1. Furthermore, removal efficiency of HCB-180 was hardly affected by the co-existing anions including Cl-, NO3-, HPO42- and SO42-. Its breakthrough curve in the dynamic adsorption process could be well fitted by Yoon-Nelson model. It was found that the hydrothermal treatment of CSB is beneficial to expose its active sites. After five cycle experiments, its removal efficiency can still reach 95.85%, while CSB severely dissolved after the second cycle, indicating that the highly stable HCB-180 with easy separation characteristic has great application prospect in the treatment of chromium-containing industrial wastewater. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.