A coal-tar-derived mesophase was chemically activated to produce a high surface area (similar to 3200 m(2)/g) carbon with a porosity made up of both micropores and mesopores. Its adsorption capacities were found to be among the highest ever reported in literature, reaching values of 860 mg/g and 1200 mg/g for the adsorption of benzene and toluene, respectively, and 1200 mg/g for the combined adsorption of benzene and toluene from an industrial wastewater. Such high values imply that the entire pore system, including the mesopore fraction, is involved in the adsorption process. The almost complete pore filling is thought to be due to the high relative concentrations of the tested solutions, resulting from the low saturation concentration values for benzene and toluene, which were obtained by fitting the adsorption data to the BET equation in liquid phase. The kinetics of adsorption in the batch experiments which were conducted in a syringe-like adsorption chamber was observed to proceed in accordance with the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The combined presence of micropores and mesopores in the material is thought to be the key to the high kinetic performance, which was outstanding in a comparison with other porous materials reported in the literature. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.