A coating granulation technology comprising the spraying of a Fe-Al-Ce nano-adsorbent suspension onto glass beads in a fluidized bed was developed. An acrylic-styrene copolymer latex was used as a binder. The granulated adsorbent was used in a packed bed for fluoride removal from drinking water. The effects of coating temperature, latex/Fe-Al-Ce ratio, and coating amount on granule compressive strength and adsorption capacity were investigated. With increased coating temperature, cross linking in the polymer in the coated layer increased, which resulted in increased granule strength but decreased adsorption capacity. With increased latex/Fe-Al-Ce ratio, more active sites were covered by the polymer, which also resulted in increased granule strength but decreased adsorption capacity. The optimal parameters for making high performance adsorbent granules were for the granules to be coated at 65 degrees C using a latex/Fe-Al-Ce ratio of 0.5:1 and a coating amount of 27.8%. These granules had a fluoride adsorption capacity of 2.77 mg/g (coated granules) for water with an initial fluoride concentration of 0.001 M that was treated at pH 7. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.