Factors such as its natural properties, low cost and availability in large quantities as a by-product may give oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) a great potential as a candidate precursor for solid carbon products. Self-adhesive carbon grains (SACG) were prepared from EFB by a low temperature pre-carbonization process. Green pellets were prepared from SACG and SACG treated with nitric acid having concentration of 1, 3 and 5 Molar (M). Carbon pellets were produced by carbonization of green pellets up to 1000degreesC in a nitrogen environment using multi-step heating profile. Measurements on carbon pellets show that the electrical conductivity (sigma), hardness (H) and Young's modulus (Y) follow the linear equations sigma/[10(-3) x (mum Omega)(-1)] = 0.57M + 4.74, H/[Vickers hardness] = 27M + 148 and Y/[GPa] = 2.6M + 5.0, respectively. This indicates that nitric acid systematically affected the properties of the product. The behavior that sigma, H and Y increase linearly with M seems to be associated with the effect of acid treatment on the weight loss, lignocellulosic structure and particle size of the SACG. (c) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.