High surface area activated carbons were prepared by simple thermo-chemical activation of Jatropha curcas fruit shell with NaOH as a chemical activating agent. The effects of the preparation variables, which were impregnation ratio (NaOH:char), activation temperature and activation time, on the adsorption capacity of iodine and methylene blue solution were investigated. The activated carbon which had the highest iodine and methylene blue numbers was obtained by these conditions as follows: 4:1 (w/w) NaOH to char ratio, 800 degrees C activation temperature and 120 min activation time. Characterization of the activated carbon obtained was performed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nitrogen adsorption isotherm as BET. The results present that the activated carbon possesses a large apparent surface area (S-BET = 1873 m(2)/g) and high total pore volume (1.312 cm(3)/g) with average pore size diameter of 28.0 angstrom. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers. All rights reserved.