The effective utilization of fly ash based porous ceramics can not only reduce the pollution of fly ash to the environment but also show high application value in wastewater treatment and other fields. In this paper porous ceramics with excellent performance were prepared by direct molding sintering method with fly ash as the main raw materialbentonite as the binder and activated carbon as the pore forming agent. The effects of sintering temperature and activated carbon amount on the structures and properties of porous ceramics were studied. The results show that sintering fly ash and bentonite forms the porous ceramic skeletonoxidized activated carbon forms the poresand porous ceramics are formed under their synergetic effects. At the same timewith the increase of sintering temperature and the decrease of activated carbon amountthe apparent porosity and water absorption decreasethe bulk density and compressive strength increase. When the sintering temperature is 1 100 ℃ and the amount of the activated carbon is 60% (mass fraction)the prepared porous ceramics with good comprehensive performance can be prepared. Its apparent porosity is 6175%bulk density is 093 g·cm-3water absorption is 63.48%compressive strength is 4.29 MPa. Moreoverits removal rate is 98.4% and the saturated adsorption capacity is 45.79 mg·g-1 in the Pb2+ solution of 100 mg·L-1.