Bisphenol A(BPA), one kind of the most widely-used industrial compounds, is persistent in the environment and poses threat to human health and other microorganisms. Consequently, it is of great significance in developing high-performance removers and understanding their action mechanisms. Based on this, this work used as-prepared pine-based porous carbon (PC) using KOH activation and surface reconstruction for PC using NaBH_4 to obtain pine-based porous carbon with enhanced properties (PC-1). Subsequently, a single-factor experimental was used to investigate the ability and mechanism of bisphenol A removal by PC and PC-1 in the persulfate system. Compared to PC, PC-1 exhibited an increase in surface hydroxyl groups, a decrease in carbonyl groups, and an increase in the value of I_D1/I_G from 1. 55 to 1. 60. Compared with the PC/PDS system, the PC-1/PDS system improved the degradation efficiency of BPA by 45%, 18%, and 64% at 25, 35, and 45 ℃, respectively. Additionally, quenching and electrochemical experiments illustrated the removal of BPA by PC and PC-1 via radical and non-radical pathways, respectively. The intrinsic defects of carbon were the active sites for persulfate activation, while oxygen-containing functional groups were the key factors influencing the activation pathway.