Acrylic textile waste was pyrolysed in a fixed bed reactor in a nitrogen atmosphere at three different temperatures, 700, 800 and 900 degrees C. Steam activation of the chars generated at these temperatures was carried out for different durations of activation time up to 4 h at 900 degrees C temperature to produce activated carbons. The BET surface area and the pore structure of the pyrolysis chars and activated carbons were evaluated from nitrogen adsorption data at 77 K in relation to process conditions. The BET surface area of the pyrolysis chars were all less than 2 m(2) g(-1), but significantly increased with steam activation to produce a maximum surface area of 752 m(2) g(-1) for the activated carbon produced from the char generated at 700 degrees C and steam activated at 900 degrees C for 2 h. The porosity of the product activated carbon was mainly microporous with an increase in mesopore fraction at higher degrees of burn-off. The effect of burn-off on the acid/base properties and the surface chemistry of the activated carbon, in terms of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen functionalities, were studied in detail using titration method and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) respectively. The results showed that, for all activated carbon samples, the concentrations of basic groups are always much higher than that of acidic groups. Higher degrees of burn-off leads to a lower percentage of graphite, higher percentage of carbide, an increase in C-oxygen functionalities and the percentage of quaternary nitrogen, while the ratio of the N-5 functionality decreased. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.