The objectives of this work were to relate the activated carbon properties to its adsorptive capacity. The activated carbon needed was produced in the lab from Greek lignite coal. Subsequently, adsorption studies were performed in order to evaluate the efficiency of the various activated carbons to remove toxic substances from water. Two organic substances were used. These were phenol and fulvic acid. Additionally, the adsorption of arsenic (V) was, also, investigated. It was found that the adsorptive capacity of the activated carbons depended primarily on the ash content and the compound. The capacity of the carbon to remove phenol, expressed as mg of phenol removed per g of activated carbon (carbon loading), decreased linearly as the amount of ash in the activated carbon increased. Ash-free activated carbons could adsorb 4 times as much phenol as the activated carbons with a high ash content. On the other hand, fulvic acid and arsenic adsorbed poorly on the ash-free activated carbons. Even for the high surface area activated carbons (over 1000 m2/g), the quantity of fulvic acid or arsenic adsorbed was significantly less than that exhibited by the high ash activated carbons (maximum surface area measured hardly exceeded 300 m2/g). As the amount of ash in the carbon increased, the carbon loading increased as well, up to a certain level, beyond which the amount of ash played no significant role. The beneficial role of ash was explained by the ability of the fulvic acid and arsenic to interact with metal oxides and metal ions, which constitute a significant fraction of the ash.