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The high fluoride (F-) content in drinking water is highly hazardous to human health. Bagasse is a solid waste generated in the cane-based sugar industry. It can be used to get energy after firing in boilers or used to produce activated charcoal. The activated carbon is used as an adsorbent material to remove pollutants from water. In the present study, the activated carbon prepared from bagasse was used to remove F-contain in water. Batch adsorption studies were performed to examine the effect of temperature (T), treatment time (tR), and initial fluoride concentration (Fi-) on F- removal. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to generate a mathematical model and for the optimization of parameters. The optimum operating condition was evaluated to be T = 26 oC, treatment time (tR) = 3.5 h, and Fi- = 25.14 mg/L, at which F-concentration in solution after treatment reached to 0.8 mg/L. The predicted values of F- in the solution obtained from the quadratic model were found to be well-matched with the experimental data. The model gave significant coefficients of determination R2 = 99.61%, R2 (adjusted) = 99.11%, and R2(predicted) = 97.71%, which shows that the model developed from RSM is highly accurate and well represents the process with its process parameters.

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