Lead-acid battery recycling not only minimizes the environmental pollution but also partially meet the high demand of lead to manufacture the lead-acid battery. Unfortunately, huge amount of wastewater is generated during recycling which carry toxic lead above the permissible limit of 0.1 mg/L. It, requires treatment before its discharge. In this study, this wastewater was treated by fixed-bed column adsorption using steam activated granular activated carbon. Adsorbent was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis to determine the applicability in adsorption. Total 13 combinations of factor levels were analyzed to optimize the performance of the bed according to Box-Behnken experimental design to determine the effect of flow rate (4, 8, and 12 mL/min), adsorbent bed diameter (1.5, 3, and 4.5 cm), and adsorbent bed depth (10, 20, and 30 cm) on breakthrough time. The best local maximum was found at flow rate 4 mL/min, adsorbent bed depth 10 cm, adsorbent bed diameter 1.5 cm, uptake capacity 0.123 mg/g, breakthrough time 87 min and desirability of 0.881. To treat the 500 L of wastewater per week, it was estimated that an adsorbent bed of diameter 17 cm and depth 113 cm will be required with the wastewater feed rate of 514 mL/min for 16.22 h. The results of this study could be utilized by the recyclers to install a modular treatment plant for the wastewater from the lead-acid battery recycling unit.