Abstract: The influence of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) or polyvinyl butyral resin (PVB), coal tar addition and molding pressure on formation of the novel columnar activated carbon prepared from walnuts shell was investigated. The desulfurization performance of the prepared samples was investigated and the texture was characterized using nitrogen adsorption-desorption. The results showed that the columnar activated carbon could be prepared under 4 MPa of molding pressure with 50% of coal tar as basic blinder, 10% of CMC and 8% of starch as assistant binder. This activated carbon has 715.6 mg/g iodine adsorption value, 53.5% yield, 15.1 MPa compressive strength, 564.8 m²/g specific surface area and 78.9% mesopore volume. The activated carbon prepared in the above conditions has breakthrough sulfur capacity of 130.8 mg/g and breakthrough time of 8.5 h. It exhibits good desulfurization performance.

Key words: activated carbon, binder, molding, desulfurization