The present work comprehensively addresses various experimental methods reported in the literature and substantiates the use of two-stage activation process with semi-carbonization stage up to 200◦C as 5rst stage followed by an activation stage at a desired temperature, for production of activated carbon from carbonaceous precursors using phosphoric acid.E7orts are made towards developing a high surface area activated carbon from rubber wood sawdust by a two-stage activation process with phosphoric acid as the activating agent.Experiments are conducted in a lab scale mu8e furnace under static conditions in a self-generated atmosphere covering process parameters such as impregnation ratio, carbonization time and temperature. The precursor material with impregnation agent is exposed straightaway to semi-carbonization and activation temperature unlike following the speci5c temperature progression as reported in the literature.The process parameters are optimized based on product yield and iodine number.Semi-carbonization at 200◦C for 15 min followed by activation at 500◦C for 45 min with impregnation ratio of 1.5 yielded a product with iodine number 1096 which corresponds to a BET surface area of 1496 m2=g with the product yield of 35% and activation agent recovery of 90%. ? 2003 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.