A commercial rubber waste product, fine rubber particle media (FRPM), was found to adsorb hydrogen sulfide (H2S) at 0.12 mg H-2 S/g FRPM of adsorption capacity. Since FRPM seems to be an attractive alternative to treat H2S owing to its economic advantages as well as its physicochemical characteristics, several analyses were conducted to investigate fundamental information, surface properties, and breakthrough characteristics of FRPM as adsorbent. The physical properties of FRPM including composition and surface chemistry were investigated to compare its performance with commonly available commercial H2S adsorbents such as activated carbon and assess the possible adsorption mechanism. The specific surface area of FRPM was less than 1% of activated carbon. FRPM does not have enough surface area supporting a pure physical adsorption of H2S because it is particulate in nature with limited porosity. The adsorption of FRPM to remove H2S was complex mechanism and involved a combination of zinc compounds and carbon black. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.