Germanium recovery from real fly ash (FA) leachates was studied using ion-exchange procedures. The procedure was based on germanium complexation with catechol (CAT) in an aqueous solution followed by the retention of the Ge-CAT complex onto a conventional strongly basic anionic resin (IRA-900). A centred composite rotatable design (CCRD) with two factors was employed for experimental design and analysis of the results. The factors examined during sorption tests were CAT amount and resin dosage. Optimum values of these parameters were: a CAT/Ge molar ratio of 9 and resin/Ge dosage of 3, obtaining 96.1% germanium retention. The obtained response surface and mathematical model are significant with high correlation coefficients (R(2) = 0.8794). The maximum amount of retained germanium was calculated to be 215.5 mg/g resin. The elution of the germanium complex was achieved with acid solutions in an ethanol matrix. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.