Preparation of activated carbon has been attempted using steam as the activating agent by microwave heating from Jatropha hull. The response surface methodology (RSM) technique is utilized to optimize the process conditions. The influences of the three major parameters, activation temperature, activation time and steam flow rate on the properties of activated carbon are investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA), to identify the significant parameters. The optimum conditions for the preparation of activated carbon has been identified to be an activation temperature of 900 degrees C. activation time of 19 min and steam flow rare of 5 g/min. The optimum conditions resulted in an activated carbon with an iodine number of 988 mg/g and a yield of 16.56% respectively, while the BET surface area evaluated using nitrogen adsorption isotherm correspond to 1350 m(2)/g, with the pore volume of 1.07 cm(3)/g. The activated carbon is hetero porous with the micropore volume contributing to 40.8%. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.