What is Activated Carbon

History

Activated carbon uses, mainly for medical purposes, have been described as far as 1550 B.C by the Egyptians and again around 400 B.C by Hippocrates.

By the 18th century, “activated carbons” resulting from blood, wood and bones were used for liquid purification by filtration or sedimentation. These carbonaceous materials were precursors of adsorbents and existed exclusively in a powder form.

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Activated carbon products can be put to a range of uses, including the purification, concentration and separation of gases from liquids, purifying drinking water, waste water and sewage treatment as well as controlling emissions. They also have further applications in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

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Activated carbons are produced from carbon of vegetable origin (peat, lignite, coal or nutshells). The activation process creates an extensive pore structure that allows considerable adsorptiononto an active surface area above 400 m2/g.

Activated carbons are produced and used as a black or dark grey solid, in granular, powder, pellet or textile form.

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The type of raw material also influences the pore size in the final product. In fact, pore diameter in the final product depends on the natural raw material pores.

For example coconut shells and very dense materials produce micropores (< 2 nm), while medium-dense and light materials produce meso- (between 2 and 50 nm) or macro-pores (> 50 nm).

It is produced from various raw materials such as bituminous coal, coconut shells, lignite, peat, synthetic sources, semi-anthracite and wood. Activated carbon is a porous, amorphous, high surface area adsorbent material composed of largely elemental carbon, with a low or high skeletal density, depending on the manufacturing process used.