Abstract: This paper presents a comparison of low temperature microwave(three types of microwave power were 60, 120, 180 W)and conductive heating methods for the regeneration of activated carbon loaded with toluene in terms of desorption rate, heating time, energy consumption and chemistry properties. The results showed that the regeneration time decreased from 60 to 22 min, with the increase of microwave power from 60 to 120 W, while the regeneration rate increased from 1.7% to 4.5%/min. The time of conductive heating was 180 min, which was 3-6 times longer than that of microwave heating. The temperature rising rate for the microwave heating method with a constant power of 60 W was approximately 187 ℃/min, while the temperature rising rate for the conductive heating was only 9 ℃/min. The energy consumption of microwave heating was only 29.7 kJ/g in comparison with 74.3 kJ/g of conductive heating. Moreover, the pore structure and FTIR results of the microwave regenerated activated carbon was consistent with those results of the original activated carbon.