Innovative magnetic alginate beads are used to remove organic pollutants from aqueous solution under different experimental conditions. These alginate beads (EpiMAB) are prepared by an extrusion technique and crosslinked with epichlorohydrin. They contain both magnetic nanoparticles and activated carbon (AC). With the addition of magnetic properties, the beads can be easily recovered or manipulated with an external magnetic field. Their capacity to adsorb pollutants is linked to encapsulated AC and to active sites coming from both magnetic nanoparticles and alginate. The efficiency of the beads as biosorbent for the removal of dyes is assessed using methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) as model molecules. The dye uptake is found to vary with the initial concentration and the charge of the adsorbed molecule. The Langmuir equation fits well the adsorption data with maximum adsorption capacities of 0.02 mmol/g for MO and 0.7 mmol/g for MB. Kinetics experiments are performed to evaluate the equilibrium time; the pseudo-second-order kinetic model adequately describes the experimental data. The influence of the pH of the solution on adsorption is also investigated and a comparison with alginate beads crosslinked by calcium ions is made. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.