The adsorption behavior of 2-naphthalenesulfonate (NS) on activated carbon Chemviron Filtrasorb 400 (F 400) in different aqueous systems was investigated in this study. Adsorption technology has high potential to remove NS from aqueous solutions due to the high adsorption capacity. The adsorption capacity of the NS by F 400 is effectively improved at lower pH value and higher ionic strength. The effective diffusion coefficients can be calculated by an approximate estimation method and further used to simulate the adsorption behavior of NS in a full-scale column when combined with linear driving force model (LDF model). Satisfactory results of simulating the adsorption breakthrough curve in the full-scale column can be obtained, which was further compared with the results of the rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs). The methods used in this study satisfactorily simulated the experimental results for investigating the performance of NS adsorbed by activated carbon F 400. Therefore, it can directly provide the parameters for designing and simulating the adsorber systems.