Pyrolysis is one form of energy recovery process which has the potential to generate oil, gas and char products. The char becomes an attractive by-product, with applications including production of activated carbons carbons that is useful as a sorbent for wastewater treatment and air pollution control. In this work, activated carbon prepared from Physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) waste which is a by product of the bio-diesel extraction industry. The char from physic nut waste pyrolyzed at 800 °C contained high fixed carbon and low volatile content that was favorable for subsequent activation process. The char was activated via chemical treatment with zinc chloride (ZnCl2) at five different ZnCl2:char ratios (1:1, 3:1, 5:1, 7:1 and 10:1) and heat treated at 700°C for 60 minutes using a fixed bed reactor under nitrogen atmosphere with a flow rate of 100 mL/min. Result shows that ZnCl2 works effectively as dehydration reagent below 800°C. Under the experimental conditions investigated, impregnation ratio of 1.0 was found to be suitable for producing high-surface area activated carbon. The surface area and total pore volume of activated carbons, which were determined by application of the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and t-plot methods, were achieved as high as 604.31m2/g and 0.715 cm3/g, respectively. The chemically activated carbons were found to be mainly type II carbons and had high adsorption property (Methylene blue adsorption = 299 mg/g and Iodine number = 514 mg/g).