Scale-up and prediction of performance of granular activated carbon (GAC) fixed bed adsorbers require the knowledge of the structural parameters of the particles and of the corresponding beds. A set of suitable and relatively simple methods including alumina and helium pycnometry, image analysis and water permeametry are therefore proposed and validated in this paper. These methods allow determination of particle parameters like internal porosity, particle density, solid density and size distribution. The bed characteristics obtained by applying the proposed approach are bed porosity, bed dynamic specific surface area and tortuosity. Experimental results obtained with this approach and concerning two kinds of GAC particle shape are given in this paper. (C) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.