Biomass is a kind of renewable resource with great application potential,which has the characteristics of wide source,abundant reserves and low price.The preparation of biomass activated carbon is an important route to promote the resource utilization of biomass materials.In this paper,the preparation of activated carbon from biomass and the regulation of preparation conditions for its microstructural characteristics including specific surface area,pore structure and surface properties are reviewed.The effects of biomass composition,carbonization and activation conditions(such as carbonization method,activator type,activator dosage,and reaction residence time)on the microstructure characteristics of activated carbon are emphatically expounded.The regulation mechanism of pore structure and surface properties by common activators(such as water vapor,CO2,ZnCl2,H3PO4,KOH,etc.)is discussed in detail.Finally,this paper summarizes the applications of activated carbon with different microstructure characteristics.