N-doped porous carbon (NPC) was produced through a simple and efficient method using biomass-derived pine sawdust as the carbon source, NH4Cl as nitrogen source and NaHCO3 as the activator. Both NPC and porous carbon (PC, prepared without nitrogen-doping) were used as support for Au nanoparticles to catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol. As expected, Au/NPC performs a substantially enhanced catalytic activity for benzyl alcohol oxidation in comparison with that of Au/PC (conversion of benzyl alcohol is 98.9% for Au/NPC and 51.4% for Au/PC under the same condition). The better catalytic performance of Au/NPC should be due to the introduction of N atoms into PC support, which not only adsorbs the benzyl alcohol molecules more easily, but also makes the Au nanoparticles smaller and more dispersed. Our experimental results also show that mild temperature (60 degrees C) is more beneficial for the reaction, O-2 atmosphere is a necessity for benzyl alcohol oxidation and Au/NPC can also be used to catalyze oxidation of other aromatic alcohols. [GRAPHICS] .