Thin crosslinked polyalginate-glutaraldehyde membranes were prepared and characterized by Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis (TG/DTG), and X-ray diffractometry. Microcalorimetric analyses have pointed out that water swellings of the membranes are slightly exothermic, and the swelling energies decrease with increasing temperature. The membranes were tested for the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of the membranes increased with increasing initial MB concentration and decreased with increasing temperature. It was observed that the MB adsorption kinetic data were best fitted by the Avrami model. Intraparticle diffusion of MB into the interior of the membranes was detected after 60 min of contact time. The MB adsorption on the membranes was also evaluated by three new 22 full factorial designs (36 experiments). It was found that binary interactions between initial dye concentration and temperature are statistically important for MB adsorption on the membranes. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 118: 857-865, 2010