Ecofriendly bioadsorbent derived from the agricultural industrial waste shown promising potential as the next generation of green adsorbent for the wastewater treatment applications. A low-cost and green bioadsorbent activated carbon of Hibiscus cannabinus or known as Kenaf was activated using KOH and carbonized at 600 °C, prior to the thermally activated at 400 °C. The SEM micrograph analysis shows that the as-developed bioadsorbent Kenaf possesses a plate-like structure with an orderly porous attribute which will enhance the adsorption process. It was found that the initial dye concentration and the adsorbent dosage are the dominant factors for the dye adsorption. Moreover, adsorption kinetic analysis revealed that the adsorption of the methylene blue follows the pseudo-second-order model (R2 = 0.9700) and Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.9834). The maximum adsorption capacity for methylene blue based on the Taguchi experimental design matrix was 154.0 mg/g within 1 h. © 2020, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.