The adsorption of levulinic acid in fixed beds of basic polymeric adsorbents at 22 degrees C was studied under various operating conditions. A general rate model which considers pore diffusion and parallel pore/surface diffusion was solved numerically by orthogonal collocation on finite elements to describe the experimental breakthrough data. The adsorption isotherms, and the pore and surface diffusion coefficients were determined independently in batch adsorption studies. The external film resistance and the axial dispersion coefficient were estimated by the Wilson-Geankoplis equation and the Chung-Wen equation, respectively. Simulation elucidated that the model which considers parallel diffusion successfully describes the breakthrough behavior and gave a much better prediction than the model which considers pore diffusion. The results obtained in this work are applicable to design and optimizes the separation process.