Abstract: Radioactive isotopes of xenon are produced in nuclear facilities, and must be trapped before released into the atmosphere. Study on the adsorption behavior of Xe isotopes in air or other gaseous medium is of great importance. For the perspective of engineering application, direct adsorption of multi-component gas at room temperature using activated carbon was studied. The comparison between multi-stage and single-stage carbon column adsorption was carried out, and the effects of condition parameters including carbon consumption were investigated. Experimental results show that single-stage carbon column is easier to be achieved in engineering application as compared with the way of multi-stage adsorbing column. For single-stage carbon column, the adsorbing efficiency of Xe reaches 90% with a gas flow velocity of 0.33 cm/s, and the resistance from the carbon bed is negligible in a certain flow velocity range (0.02-1.2 cm/s).