The removal of organic dyes from industrial wastewater remains a problem, both technically and

economically. In this study, Yarrowia lipolytica yeast cells were isolated from poultry meat and immobilized using

alginate. The immobilized Yarrowia lipolytica yeast was used as biosorbent to remove methylene blue (MB) dye

from synthetic effl uent water. The results show that maximum adsorption capacity under optimum conditions was

66.67 mg∙g-1. The equilibrium adsorption data fi tted well onto the Freundlich adsorption isotherms with R2

>0.99.

Adsorption kinetics was of pseudo-second order process suggesting that the adsorption was a chemisorption. FTIR

spectra identifi ed typical absorption bands of a biosorbent. Sorption of MB dye on Yarrowia lipolytica yeast cells

was exothermic with weak sorption interaction.