This also how the petrochemical Activated Carbon Catalysts such as the one Les Case used are activated, Jed.
Fred US 7,091,156 August 15 2006 "1. An activated carbon suitable for use in electric double layer capacitors, said activated carbon being produced by carbonization of a carbonaceous material consisting essentially of coconut shell, wherein said activated carbon is produced by a process comprising: pulverizing a coconut shell; carbonizing said coconut shell in an inert atmosphere to produce a coconut shell char; and heat-treating said coconut shell char at a temperature ranging from 900.degree. C. to 1,100.degree. C. in a steam gas atmosphere containing an inert gas selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, argon, and a combustion exhaust gas, wherein the content of steam in said steam gas atmosphere ranges from 30% by volume to 100% by volume, wherein said activated carbon has a BET specific surface area of 2000 m.sup.2/g to 2500 m.sup.2/g, and an average pore diameter of 1.95 nm (19.5 .ANG.) to 2.20 nm (22 .ANG.), wherein the pore volume of pores having a pore diameter, as calculated according to a ! Cranston-Inkley method, of 5.0 nm (50 .ANG.) to 30.0 nm (300 .ANG.) is 0.05 cm.sup.3/g to 0.15 cm.sup.3/g, wherein the amount of oxygen contained per g of said activated carbon is 1.8 mg to 8.1 mg, and wherein said activated carbon exhibits a spontaneous potential versus a lithium electrode of 2.85 V to 3.03 V in a non-aqueous electrolytic solution" "The activated carbon of the invention is obtained by carbonizing coconut shell, then activating the carbonization product. Activating methods are roughly classified into a gas activation method and a chemical agent activation method. The gas activation method, which is also called physical activation in contrast to that the chemical agent activation is chemical activation, is an activation to produce activated carbon by bringing the carbonized raw material into contact with steam, carbonic acid gas, oxygen or other oxidizing gas at a high temperature to conduct reaction. The chemical agent activation method is a method of uniformly impregnating the raw material with an activating chemical agent, heating it in an inert gas atmosphere to cause dehydration and oxidation reaction of the chemical agent to thereby obtain activated carbon. As the chemical agents to be used, there are illustrated zinc chloride, phosphoric acid, sodium phosphate, calcium chloride, potassium sulfide,! potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate and calcium carbonate. "
