In this study, the adsorption of Reactive Blue 19 (RB 19), Reactive Red 195 (RR 195) and Reactive Yellow 145 (RY 145) onto wheat bran, generated as a by-product material from flour factory, was studied with respect to initial pH, temperature, initial dye concentration, adsorbent concentration and adsorbent size. The adsorption of RB 19, RR 195 and RY 145 onto wheat bran increased with increasing temperature and initial dye concentration while the adsorbed RB 19, RR 195 and RY 145 amounts decreased with increasing initial pH and adsorbent concentration. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to the experimental equilibrium data depending on temperature and the isotherm constants were determined by using linear regression analysis. The monolayer covarage capacities of wheat bran for RB 19, RR 195 and RY 145 dyes were obtained as 117.6, 119.1 and 196.1 mg/g at 60 degrees C, respectively. It was observed that the reactive dye adsorption capacity of wheat bran decreased in the order of RY 145 > RB 19 > RR 195. The pseudo-second order kinetic and Weber-Morris models were applied to the experimental data and it was found that both the surface adsorption as well as intraparticle diffusion contributed to the actual adsorption processes of RB 19, RR 195 and RY 145. Regression coefficients (R-2) for the pseudo-second order kinetic model were higher than 0.99. Thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption of RB 19, RR 195 and RY 145 dyes onto wheat bran was endothermic in nature. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.