The adsorption potential of water hyacinth on the removal of direct blue 2 (DB2) dye from aqueous solution was investigated. Surface area, morphology and functional groups were identified using Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, respectively. All the essential process influencing parameters, such as pH (2-4), initial dye concentration (100-300 mg/L), adsorbent dosage (1-5 g/L), contact time of adsorbent with pollutant (15-180 min) and temperature (20-400C) were studied. The maximum dye removal efficiency of 87.8% was observed at pH 2, the adsorbent dosage of 3 g/L, initial dye concentration of 100 mg/L, 400C temperature and contact time of 90 min. The experimental isotherm data were analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models. Equilibrium and kinetic studies revealed that the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic model were the best fit for the adsorption process. The thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic in nature. © 2017 ICR Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.