Cassava is one of the most important commodities in Indonesia, an agricultural country. Cassava is one of the primary foods in our country and usually used for traditional food, cake, etc. Cassava peel is an agricultural waste from the food and starch processing industries. In this study, this solid waste was used as the precursor for activated carbon preparation. The preparation process consisted of potassium hydroxide impregnation at different impregnation ratio followed by carbonization at 450-750 degrees C for 1-3 h. The results revealed that activation time gives no significant effect on the pore structure of activated carbon produced, however, the pore characteristic of carbon changes significantly with impregnation ratio and carbonization temperature. The maximum surface area and pore volume were obtained at impregnation ratio 5:2 and carbonization temperature 750 degrees C. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.