Experiments were carried out to evaluate the batch adsorption of phenol from petroleum refinery wastewater on a locally prepared date-pit activated carbon (DP-AC). Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics data were determined for the uptake of phenol from real refinery wastewater and from synthetically prepared aqueous phenol solution. The data were fitted to several adsorption isotherm and kinetics models. Sips as well as Langmuir models gave the best fit for equilibrium isotherms, whereas the kinetics data were best fitted by the pseudo-second order model. The enthalpy of adsorption showed an exothermic nature of the adsorption process. Several chemical and thermal techniques were tested for the regeneration of saturated activated carbon; using ethanol was found to be the most effective with more than 86% regeneration efficiency after four regeneration cycles. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.