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The adsorption of humic acids on granular activated carbon has been investigated. A commerically available humic acid and that extracted from the bottom sludge of a dam were employed in the studies. Both batch and continuous adsorption experiments were conducted. A simplified competitive adsorption model in conjunction with the Freundlich isotherm was employed to represent the batch multicomponent adsorption system and a homogeneous surface diffusion model utilized to describe the continuous adsorption system in a packed-bed column. The model parameters were obtained by best fit of the models to the experimental adsorption data. The results indicated that the liquid-phase mass-transfer resistance, surface diffusion coefficient and the amount of adsorption on the activated carbon decreased with increasing molecular weight of the humic acid. It was also found that the adsorption of humic acid on the activated carbon was primarily a surface diffusion-controlled process.