Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), a natural polymeric material from the palm oil tree, is a potential precursor for making carbon for advanced materials applications because of its continuous generation in large quantities as a low cost by-product of the palm oil mill; annual production of EFB in Malaysia is approximately 2 million tonnes. Powders of natural pyropolymer having self-adhesion property, NPP1, NPP2, and NPP3, were prepared by precarbonizing the EFB, EFB treated with acid (1 % HCL), and alkaline (1 % NaOH) respectively. Green bodies of carbon pellets prepared from the NPP1, NPP2, and NPP3 were carbonized up to 1000degreesC using a multistep heating profile. Hardness of the carbonized pellets prepared from NPP1, NPP2, and NPP3 were 1/8,2/5, and 1/2 of that of the reference sample (334 HV) respectively. This implied that, although the treatment improved the sample hardness it did not significantly increase the intermolecular forces or the number of inter-ribbon cross-links in the samples during carbonization. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.