The feasibility of using granulated activated carbon for adsorption removal of copper from aqueous solution was studied. The influence of pH, amount of the adsorbent, contact time, and copper concentration on adsorption of copper was investigated. The single-component equilibrium data on copper adsorption were analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, Temkin, and Toth adsorption isotherms. The adsorption process was followed by two simplified kinetic models including pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order equations. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption capacities, and the corresponding correlation coefficients were calculated and examined for each kinetic model. It was shown that copper adsorption can be described by the pseudo-second-order equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]