The carbonaceous adsorbent was prepared from mixtures of dewatered sludge and sawdust with enhanced ZnCl2 chemical activation. Characteristics of the adsorbent were studied using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and adsorption of nitrosen. The surface analysis showed that the carbonaceous adsorbent had good specific surface and porosity (394 m(2).g(-1) of BET surface, 0.12 and 0.10 ml.g(-1) of microporous and mesoporous volume, respectively). The oxygen functional groups such as -OH, C-O and C=O were found on the surface by FTIR and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). The adsorption of elemental mercury (Hg-0) on the carbonaceous adsorbent was studied in a fixed bed reactor. The dynamic adsorption capacity of carbonaceous adsorbent increased with influent mercury concentration, from 23.6 mu g.g(-1) at 12.58 mu g.m(-3) to 87.9 1 mu g.g(-1) at 72.50 mu g.m(-3), and decreased as the adsorption temperature increased, from 246 mu g.g(-1) at 25 degrees C to 61.3 mu g.g(-1) at 140 degrees C, when dry nitrogen was used as the carrier gas. The carbonaceous adsorbent presented higher dynamic adsorption capacity than activated carbon, which was 81.2 mu g.g(-1) and 53.8 mu g.g(-1) respectively. The adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir adsorption model. The physical and chemical adsorption were identified on the adsorbent.