The name of activated charcoal is applied to a series of artificially prepared porous carbons to exhibit a high degree of porosity and a high inner surface. These characteristics are responsible for their adsorptive properties, which are used widely in many applications in gas phase and liquid phase. Chemically it is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and ash. The activated carbon adsorbent is a very versatile, because the size and distribution of pores in the carbonaceous structure can be controlled to meet the current and future technology. The pore sizes ranging from smaller called micropores (2.0 nm) until the mesopores (2 — 50 nm) and macropore (<50 nm). It should be borne in mind that most adsorption occurs in the micropores (greater than 90% of the surface area) the mesopores and macropores are extremely important because in the activated charcoal are those which facilitate access of the species will adsorb to the interior of the particle and of the micropores [58].

One of the materials that have been studied as biomass support is activated charcoal. Its high porosity and high surface area activated charcoal make it an ideal material to be carried out the process of adsorption of heavy metals. Another reason why activated charcoal is used for the adsorption is its low cost, since it is an abundant product is obtained as a byproduct of the production of oil from coconut, olive and processing of sugar cane [55].