Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was selected as the supporting material for grafting maleic anhydride (MA) to obtain sugarcane-bagasse-grafting-maleic-anhydride (SCB-g-MA), which was used as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB) in the dye-containing wastewater. The granular morphology and functional groups of the material were characterized by the scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and solid-state analysis (13C NMR) methods. The effect(s) of the adsorbent dosage, adsorption time, initial concentration of MB, and the pH of solution on the MB adsorption performance of the material have been also investigated. The results showed that the adsorption capacity and removal rate of MB were found to be 82 mg/g and 98%, respectively. It has also showed that the adsorption behavior on the MB could be well described by the pseudo-second-order model integrated with Langmuir model. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.