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Crude oil refineries in Indonesia produce much waste in the vacuum distillation as vacuum residue, but its utilization is still low. As heavy oil residue, vacuum residue contains high aromatics and therefore high carbon which can be utilized as raw material to produce high surface area activated carbon (AC). Such a AC is widely used in the field of gas storage and electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). Electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) with activated carbon electrodes are known to have higher capacity for energy storage. Vacuum residue containing isotropic aromatics can be pyrolysed to form anisotopic aromatics which has high crystalline content thus increasing mechanical strength of AC. In the present work, vacuum residue was mixed with dehydrated castor oil as conjugated double bond source, then followed by pyrolysis at heating rate of 5°C/min until 450°C and holding time at 450°C for 90 minutes. The amount of dehydrated castor oil added to vacuum residue was varied at 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% weight of vacuum residue. Castor oil can be obtained from castor oil plants, which are widely grown in Indonesia, by extraction process of castor bean. Dehydration of castor oil used a catalyst of sodium bisulfate to obtain conjugated double bonds. Co-pyrolysis of vacuum residue and addition of conjugated double bonds reduce C/H atomic ratio precursors, from 1.82 to 1.50, 1.48, and 1.45. Product of co-pyrolysis of vacuum residue and dehydrated castor oil was used as a precursor to prepare for activation and carbonization. The activation was conducted by activating the precursor with KOH solution and followed by carbonization at heating rate of 5°C/min until 700°C and holding time at 700°C for 30 minutes. The results show that the addition of castor oil by 0%wt, 5%wt, 10%wt, and 15%wt improved pore surface area from 150.32 m2/g, 236.97, 290.99, and 357.78 m2/g.