Important Details About Activated Carbon

Precisely what is ACTIVATED CARBON?

Activated carbon (also referred to as activated charcoal, activated coal or active carbon) is an extremely useful adsorbent. This can high floor, pore structure (micro, meso and macro), as well as amount of surface reactivity, activated carbon enable you to purify, dechlorinate, deodorize and decolorize both liquid and vapor applications. Moreover, activated carbons are economical adsorbents for a lot of industries for example water purification, food-grade products, cosmetology, automotive applications, industrial gas purification, petroleum and rare metal recovery mainly for gold. The beds base materials for activated carbons are coconut shell, coal or wood.

Using ACTIVATED CARBON

Several types of activated carbon are fitted to various specialized applications.

Granulated activated carbon
Pelletized activated carbon
Powdered activated carbon
Impregnated activated carbon

Catalytic activated carbon

Each grade and height and width of activated carbon is application specific. Deciding on the correct activated carbon product and mesh size depends upon the application form and contaminants you plan to eliminate.

Typical applications are:

Eliminating volatile organic compounds including Benzene, TCE, and PCE.
Hydrogen Sulfide (HS) and eliminating waste gases
Impregnated activated carbon used as a bacteria inhibitor in normal water filters
Removal of taste and odor causing compounds such as MIB and geosmin
Recovery of gold
Elimination of chlorine and chloramine
Designing a proper activated carbon filtering system with plenty of contact time, pressure drop, and vessel dimension is important. Also, activated carbon’s physical and chemical characteristics play an important role in removing contaminants effectively. Therefore, material tests are essential and ASTM test methods including butane activity, surface, density, and water content (moisture) can be executed to get the best suitable material for the application.

TYPES OF ACTIVATED CARBON

Coconut shell-based activated carbon

Abdominal muscles large internal surface areas seen as an microporosity together with high hardness and occasional dust make these coconut shell carbons particularly attractive for water and significant air applications as well as point-of-use water filters and respirators

Quite high surface area seen as an a large proportion of micropores
High hardness with low dust generation
Excellent purity, with many products exhibiting a maximum of 3-5% ash content.
Renewable and green raw material.

Coal-based activated carbon

It produces different performance characteristics in industrial applications typically catered to with coal or coconut products.

Wood based activated carbon carries a high area characterized by both mesopores and micropores and has excellent decolorizing properties due to its signature porosimetry

Catalytic based activated carbon

Catalytic carbon can be a form of activated carbon accustomed to remove chloramines and hydrogen sulfide from mineral water.

They have each of the adsorptive characteristics of conventional activated carbons, and also the capability to promote chemical reactions.

Catalytic carbon just isn’t impregnated with caustic chemicals
Because catalytic carbons have zero impregnates, you won’t worry about reduced organic odor capacity or even the higher bed fire potential with the impregnated carbons.

Catalytic carbon is produced by altering the outer lining structure of activated carbon. It can be modified by gas processing at high temperatures to change the electronic structure that will create the greatest degree of catalytic activity on carbon for reducing chloramine and H2S in water. This added catalytic functionality is a lot in excess of that found in traditional activated carbons. Catalytic carbon is an economical strategy to treat H2S levels all the way to Twenty to thirty ppm. Catalytic carbon converts adsorbed H2S into sulfuric acid and sulfurous acid which can be water soluble, so carbon systems could be regenerated with water washing to bring back H2S ease of more uncommon physical change-outs.

Relatively low density
Renewable supply of raw material

Impregnated Activated Carbon

Surface impregnation chemically modifies activated carbon via a fine distribution of chemicals and metal particles for the internal surfaces of its pores. This greatly increases the carbon’s adsorptive capacity through a synergism relating to the chemicals and also the carbon. And gives a cost-effective strategy to remove impurities from gas streams which may otherwise ‘t be possible.

Water treatment
Due to the antimicrobial/antiseptic properties, silver-impregnated carbon is a great adsorbent for purification in earth-bound domestic and also other water systems.

Gas purification
Impregnated activated carbon is utilized to treat flue gases in coal-fired generation plants as well as other pollution control applications. Carbon can be specifically impregnated for eliminating acid gases, ammonia and amines, aldehydes, radio-active iodine, mercury and inorganic gases like arsine and phosphine. Carbon impregnated with metal-oxide targets inorganic gases including HCN, H2S, phosphine and arsine.

To learn more about Coal Based Activated Carbon view this resource