Removal of phenol and p-chlorophenol from synthetic single and bisolute aqueous solutions at 303.15 K through adsorption on Amberlite XAD-16 resin under batch equilibrium and dynamic column experimental conditions was investigated. The equilibrium adsorption data from single component solutions were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models to evaluate the model parameters and the parameters in turn were used to predict the extent of adsorption from bisolute aqueous solutions using Ideal Solution Adsorption (IAS) model. The effect of pH on removal of phenol and p-chlorophenol from single and bisolute systems was studied. The breakthrough capacity and total capacity of the resin for the adsorbates at different concentrations were evaluated through column adsorption studies. Attempts were made to regenerate the resin by solvent washing using methanol as an eluent. The limited number of adsorption-desorption cycles indicated that the adsorption capacity of the resin remained unchanged. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.