In this work, a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) was produced from a bituminous Lafia-Obi Nasarawa coal. An initial activated carbon (AC) sample was prepared via chemical activation from the coal, from which the CMS samples were then produced through heat treatment processes and carbon deposition from spent engine oil. Spent engine oil was pyrolyzed in order to deposit carbon at the pore mouth of coal-based AC to yield CMS. The effect of reaction temperature and holding time variation on the surface area, micropore pore volume and pore size of CMS was studied. Reaction temperature was varied at 400, 550 and 700 degrees C while holding time was varied at 30 and 60 min. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method was used to calculate the surface areas, while the Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) and Horvath-Kawazoe (HK) methods were used to determine the micropore volumes and pore sizes of the AC and CMS, respectively. The CMS sample with the largest BET surface area (5.824 m(2) g(-1)), DR micropore volume (0.172 cm(3) g(-1)) and HK pore size (6.317 angstrom) were obtained at 700 degrees C reaction temperature and 60 min holding time. In addition to this, a molecular sieving ability test to separate benzene from a mixture of benzene and o-xylene in solution was carried out on the AC and CMS, with the CMS having a selective benzene percentage uptake of 61.36 %.
