Activated carbon is an important industrial adsorbent which finds application in pollution control, water treatment, solvent recovery and as a catalyst. The popular adsorbent is riding the coat tails of a boom spurred by tightening environmental laws. Demand is rising sharply by 7% every year, and indigenous production and characterization of activated carbon from various raw materials becomes imperative for diversified end uses.In the present work rubber wood was explored as an alternative viable source for activated carbon production.Amuffle furnace was made use of and the effect of various parameters on chemical activation , steam activation and chemical activation followed by steam activation was studied. The parameters were time , reagent selection, reagent concentration and impregnation ratio. The carbon was characterized with the help of its Methylene blue number and its Iodine number which gives an indication of the micro, meso and macro pore sizes. It was observed by considering only the M ethylene blue number and Iodine number that chemical activation followed by steam activation is better. Considering the yield it can also be concluded that activation only by the chemical method yields better results.

KEYWORDS: Activated carbon, Rubber wood,Activation, Characterization.