A recently proposed model using the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) and micropore size distribution (MPSD) concept to describe the multicomponent adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of gases in activated carbon is applied to study the effect of MPSD shape on the prediction performance of binary adsorption equilibrium and kinetics. The model is tested with the experimental data of adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of mixed gases on Ajax-activated carbon. Two different MPSDs derived from different methods for Ajax-activated carbon are used. The results show that the model can predict accurately the multicomponent adsorption equilibrium and kineticcs using only information of single-component system, and the MPSD shape affects the equilibrium prediction weakly but plays an important role in the kinetics prediction. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.