The objective of this investigation was to study the biosorption of Cr (VI) on immobilised activated sludge (IAS) and calcium alginate (CA) using batch system. The optimal pH for Cr (VI) biosorption by IAS and CA was 2.0 and 4.0, respectively. Equilibrium was attained at approximately 120 min for both biosorbents. For both biosorbents, the equilibrium biosorption capacity (mg/g) increased as the initial metal ion concentration increased and the concentration of biosorbent decreased. The rate of biosorption onto IAS and pure CA (as mg/g) increased from 5.02 to 87.66 and 4.97 to 79.09 as the concentration of Cr (VI) ions increased from 10 to 1000 mg/L, respectively. In the case of biosorbent concentration, as the concentration of IAS and pure CA increased from 1 to 20 g/L, the equilibrium uptake (q(e)) decreased from 21.33 to 1.57 and 19.41 to 1.38 mg/g, respectively. The biosorption data showed that the Langmuir model was more suitable than the Freundlich model. Also, the results indicated that the pseudo-second order model was the most suitable for Cr (VI) biosorption onto IAS and CA. (c) 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering