In the last two decades an increasing presence of organic substances such drugs, pesticides, etc. has been detected in water which may affect the health of the organisms and the environment. Some of these contaminants remain in the water after the usual treatment in sewage plants. This fact makes evident the need of introduction of the tertiary treatments that allow the complete elimination of these substances. This Doctoral Thesis researches for the elimination of different organic and emerging compounds present in water by means of the adsorption with new activated carbons. In particular, new carbon materials from different wastes, coal, synthetic materials, which have been produced and characterized, allow the adsorption of the organic compounds widely used in society. Different characteristics of the adsorbents (chemical composition, functional groups, texture, etc.) and of adsorbates (dimensions, hydrophobicity, pKa, functional groups, etc.) that influence on the adsorption process have been studied. Moreover, in this work, an analysis and kinetic model have been proposed. The analytic model allow, by chemometrics, enhancing the quantification of two or more organic compounds in solution by spectroscopy UV-vis. The kinetic model proposed provides a better comprehension and interpretation, as a better prediction of the different parameters on the adsorption process. In this sense, the following Thesis presents five works which have allowed a better comprehension of the adsorption process by means carbon materials from different origin. The first work, "highly microporous activated carbons from biocollagenic wastes as adsorbents or aromatic pollutants in water originating from industrial activities", about the texture and chemical composition of activated carbon from biocollagenic wastes which have been studied in order to observe how these parameters affect on the adsorption of aromatic monosubstitued compounds. Moreover, different variables as temperature and activating agent are studied in the process of manufacture activated carbons. The second work, "Removal of pharmaceutical and Iodinated Contrast Media (ICM) compounds on carbon xerogels and activated carbons. NOM and textural properties influences", shows the important role of pore size distribution in activated carbon which plays on the adsorption of different pharmaceuticals (salicylic acid, paracetamol, diclifenac, etc.) and iodinated contrast media (iohexol, iodixanol, iomeprol, etc) of different size. The influence of natural organic matter (NOM) in water is also studied in the adsorption of the all pollutants. The adsorption of paracetamol, phenol and salicylicacid in different coal-based activated carbon is showed in the contain of the work "Removal of pharmaceutical pollutants in water using coal-based activated carbons". In this work, the chemical characteristics on the surface of activated carbons are studied in order to observe the influence in the adsorption of different organic compounds; and also the influence of the pH water. The results showed an increase of adsorption of salicylates due to the presence of sulphur on the surface of the adsorbent. The fourth work; "Multicomponent adsorption on coal-based activated carbons on aqueous media: new cross-correlation analysis method", as a continuation of the previous work, shows a new chemometric technique that allows to analysis the binary and ternary solutions correctly by UV-vis spectroscopy. Moreover, the competitive effect between two or three molecules is studied on the adsorption process. In the last work, "Role of activated carbon properties in atrazine and paracetamol adsorption equilibrium and kinetics", a new kinetic model is proposed for the adsorption of paracetamol and atrazine using activated carbon from sewage sludge and two, commercial, activated carbons.