The five representative components (pinewood, paperboard, waste tire, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and
acrylic textile) in municipal solid waste (MSW) were selected as raw materials to prepare the activated
carbon. Single component, double component, and triple component mixtures were pyrolyzed in a fixed
bed reactor. The optimal preparation condition was acquired with a reaction temperature of 800 ◦C and
reaction time of 60 min. The influence of different components on the adsorption performance of pyrolysis
product was investigated under the optimum condition. Among the different single components, the
pinewood showed the best adsorption capacity. As for the four kinds of double components mixture, the
mixture of pinewood and tire showed the highest methylene blue adsorption performance. To approach
the actual proportion of MSW, the triple components mixtures were further investigated. Four kinds of
the triple components mixtures were pyrolyzed under the same preparation conditions under nitrogen
atmosphere. The mixture of pinewood, tire and acrylic textile showed the best adsorption performance,
which exhibited high surface area (646.32 m2/g) and pore volume (0.52 m3/g), suggesting the potential
application as adsorbent.