The use of chars and carbons as absorbents and catalyst supports could be expanded if their stability to reactive gases were improved. The purpose of this task is to develop methods for applying surface coatings of boron carbide, silicon carbide, and titanium carbide on the char. Formation of these composites will increase stability and improve structural strength and, consequently, resistance to abrasion. The first objective of this task is to develop methods for coating low-rank coal (LRC) chars and carbons by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to produce high surface area composites that are inert to reactive atmospheres. The proposed coating layers will be formed from elements known to form extremely hard and stable carbide materials. The second objective is to determine the feasibility of using supercritical extraction to prepare an activated carbon with a very high surface area. During this report period supercritical solvent extraction was investigated as a means of producing very large microporous structures in chars. Wyodak subbituminous coal, Gascoyne lignite, and Velva lignite were used for the supercritical extractions.