Development of efficient functionalized carbon support holds great importance in catalysis especially for those reactions under harsh reaction conditions. Herein, we use cherry stone as the precursor to produce porous carbon via a nitrogen doping and simultaneously chemical activation process. The obtained N-Ac-CS material showed high surface area of 1155 m(2)/g and a unique hierarchically pore structures with interconnected macro and micro pores. Meanwhile, 6% N was doped in the carbon framework with predominantly pyrrolic and pyridinic N. It showed superior activity and stability as catalyst support for terephthalic acid purification reaction, even better than the commercially used activated carbon. This may be due to the nitrogen doped surface benefiting for the catalyst dispersion and the hierarchical structure could facilitate the mass transfer. In addition, the high mechanical strength and the shaped morphology of the cherry stone derived carbon making itself a potential candidate for the industrial application. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.