Activated carbon as a key material applied to the deep purification treatment process of water  is mature and reliable. The municipal water production in most cities in China adopts the activated carbon water deep purification process. The activated carbon was used as an adsorbent to purify the typical pollutants in water. The adsorption characteristics of activated carbon in the advance purification process of drinking water was researched to provide a basis for the selection of activated carbon in drinking water treatment. High-efficiency briquetted activated carbon prepared from Xinjiang coal was used as the adsorbent to treat the raw water of the Huangpu River. The  UV254 and COD（Mn） of the water were used as the evaluation indexes of the advance purification effect. The data of static adsorption test were fitted by adsorption isothermal model and quasi-secondary kinetic model to evaluate the adsorption properties of pollutant in water samples by activated carbon. The removal effect of pollutant by activated carbon at different water fluxes was studied. The raw water of Huangpu River was treated by upper flow aeration biosorbent device, and the service period was calculated. Optimal regeneration conditions of activated carbon were analyzed. The results indicate that the equilibrium adsorption capacity of activated carbon for substances represented by  UV254 and COD（Mn）index in the water is 0.481（cm·g）-1 and 13.889 mg/g, respectively. Compared with the substances represented by COD(Mn), activated carbon absorbed substances represented by  UV254 faster. Dynamic experiment was used to study the treatment effect of activated carbon. When water fluxes ratio reaches 6 990, the adsorption of activated carbon to substances represented by  UV254 and COD（Mn）basically reaches equilibrium. At this time, the removal rate of  UV254 is reduced to 50%, and the removal rate of COD（Mn）is reduced to 5.9%. Comparing the physico-chemical parameters of adsorption of saturated activated carbon with new activated carbon, it is found that the particle size of saturated carbon becomes smaller and the loading density and strength increases under the action of long-term water flow scour and water flow shear force. The service life of activated carbon is mainly reflected through its physical life. According to the loss degree of activated carbon layer and particle size in the process of aeration and backwashing, the service life is estimated to be about 9.2 years. After comprehensive analysis of  the regeneration rate of activated carbon, recovery of adsorption properties and regeneration cost, the optimal time of regeneration is 3 hours, and the activated carbon is regenerated 3 times when the regeneration temperature is 850 ℃ and the water vapor flow rate is 80 m3/min.