The thermoplastic properties of bituminous coals must be destroyed to produce a highly microporous material. In practice, this can be reached by oxidation of coal, but an alternative can be the addition of an appropriate polymeric substance. This work is focused on the evaluation of the mixtures of bituminous coals with PET and a coal-tar pitch (CTP) with PET as a precursor of activated carbons.Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores (Spanish Foreign Office) and the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology (Research Action 2001 PL0030).Peer reviewed