Dyes often include toxic, carcinogenic compounds and are harmful to humans' health. Therefore, removal of dyes from textile industry wastewater is essential. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the combination of zero valent iron (ZVI) powder and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in the removal of Reactive Red 198 (RR198) dye from aqueous solution. This applied research was performed in a batch system in the laboratory scale. This study investigated the effect of various factors influencing dye removal, including contact time, pH, adsorbent dose, iron powder dose, initial dye concentration, and temperature. The equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed using three common adsorption models: Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin. Besides, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were used to establish the adsorption mechanism. The results showed, in pH = 3, contact time = 100 min, ZVI dose = 5000 mg center dot L-1, and MWCNTs dose = 600 mg center dot L-1 in 100mg center dot L-1 dye concentration, the adsorption efficiency increased to 99.16%. Also, adsorption kinetics was best described by the pseudo-second-ordermodel. Equilibriumdata fitted wellwith the Freundlich isotherm (R-2= 0.99). The negative values of Delta G(0) and the positive value of Delta H-0 (91.76) indicate that the RR198 adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic. According to the results, the combination of MWCNTs and ZVI was highly efficient in the removal of azo dyes. (C) 2016 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.