Activated carbon knowledge

Activated carbon knowledge

The basics of activated carbon

You may not know much about activated charcoal. What are the varieties of activated carbon, and what are the effects of each?

Activated carbon is a traditional man-made material, also known as carbon molecular sieve. Since its advent one hundred years ago, the application field of activated carbon has been expanding, and the number of applications has been increasing. Due to different raw material sources, manufacturing methods, appearance shape and application occasions, there are many types of activated carbon, there are no precise statistics of materials, there are about thousands of varieties.

Classification method of activated carbon: according to material classification, according to shape classification, according to use classification.

Activated carbon material classification

1, coconut shell carbon

Coconut shell activated carbon from Hainan, Southeast Asia and other places of high-quality coconut shell as raw materials, raw materials through screening, steam carbonization after refining treatment, and then through the removal of impurities, activation screening and other series of processes made. Coconut shell activated carbon is black granular, with developed pore structure, high adsorption capacity, high strength, stable chemical properties, durable.

2, fruit shell carbon

Fruit shell activated carbon is mainly made of fruit shells and wood chips as raw materials, through carbonisation, activation, refining and processing. It has the characteristics of large specific surface area, high strength, uniform particle size, developed pore structure and strong adsorption performance. It can effectively adsorb free chlorine, phenol, sulphur, oil, gum, pesticide residues in water, and complete the recovery of other organic pollutants and organic solvents. Applicable to pharmaceutical, petrochemical, sugar, beverage, alcohol purification industry, the decolourisation of organic solvents, refining, purification and sewage treatment.

Fruit shell activated carbon is widely used in the deep purification of drinking water, industrial water and wastewater as well as life and industrial water purification projects.

3、Wooden activated carbon

Wooden carbon is made from high quality wood, which is in the form of powder, and refined by high temperature carbonisation, activation and many other processes to become wood activated carbon. It has the characteristics of large specific surface area, high activity, developed microporous, strong decolouring power, large pore structure, etc. It can effectively adsorb various kinds of substances and impurities such as colours and other large ones in the liquid.

4, coal carbon

Coal charcoal is refined by choosing high quality anthracite as raw material, with the shapes of column, granule, powder, honeycomb, sphere, etc. It has the features of high strength, fast adsorption speed, high adsorption capacity, large specific surface area, and well-developed pore structure.Its pore size is between coconut shell activated carbon and wood activated carbon. It is mainly used in high-end air purification, waste gas purification, high purity water treatment, waste water treatment, sewage treatment and so on.

Activated carbon appearance shape classification

1. Powdered activated carbon

Activated carbon with a particle size of less than 0.175mm is generally referred to as powdered activated carbon or powdered carbon. Powdered carbon has the advantages of faster adsorption and full use of adsorption capacity when used, but requires proprietary separation methods.

With the advancement of separation technology and the emergence of certain application requirements, there is a tendency for the particle size of powdered carbon to become more and more refined, and on some occasions it has reached the micron or even nanometer level.

2, granular activated carbon

Activated carbon with particle size larger than 0.175mm is usually called granular activated carbon. Indeterminate granular activated carbon is generally made from granular raw materials through carbonisation, activation, and then crushed and sieved to the required particle size, or it can be made from powdered activated carbon by adding appropriate binders through appropriate processing.

3, cylindrical activated carbon

Cylindrical activated carbon, also known as columnar carbon, is generally made from powdered raw materials and binder by mixing and kneading, extrusion moulding and then carbonisation, activation and other processes. Powdered activated carbon with binder can also be extruded. There are solid and hollow columnar carbon, hollow columnar carbon is columnar carbon with artificial one or several small regular holes.

4, spherical activated carbon

Spherical activated carbon, as the name suggests, is garden-spherical activated carbon, which is produced in a similar way to columnar carbon, but with a ball-forming process.It can be made from liquid carbonaceous raw materials by spray granulation, oxidation, carbonisation and activation, or it can be made from powdered activated carbon with binder into balls. Spherical activated carbon can also be divided into solid and hollow spherical activated carbon.

5, other shapes of activated carbon

In addition to the two main categories of powdered activated carbon and granular activated carbon, other shapes of activated carbon also exist, such as activated carbon fibre, activated carbon fibre blanket, activated carbon cloth, honeycomb activated carbon, activated carbon panels and so on.

Activated carbon is classified by use

1. Coal-based granular activated carbon for solvent recovery

Coal granular activated carbon for solvent recovery is made of natural high-quality coal and refined by physical activation method. It is black granular, non-toxic and odourless, with well-developed pores, reasonable distribution of three types of pores, and strong adsorption capacity.It has strong adsorption capacity for most organic solvent vapours in a large concentration range, and is widely used for organic solvent recovery of benzene, xylene, ether, ethanol, acetone, gasoline, trichloromethane, tetrachloromethane and so on.

2. Activated carbon for water purification

Activated carbon for water purification is made of high-quality natural raw materials (coal, wood, fruit shells, etc.) and refined by physical activation method. It is black granular (or powder), non-toxic and odourless, with the advantages of strong adsorption capacity and fast filtration speed.It can effectively adsorb undesirable substances of small molecular structure and large molecular structure in liquid phase, and is widely used in purification of drinking water and deodorisation and purification of industrial wastewater, sewage and river sewage water quality, and deep improvement.

3. Activated carbon for air purification

Activated carbon for air purification is made of high quality coal and refined by catalytic activation method. It is black columnar particles, non-toxic and odourless, with strong adsorption capacity and easy desorption, etc. It is widely used in gas-phase adsorption for solvent recovery, indoor gas purification, industrial waste gas treatment, flue gas purification and toxic gas protection.

4, desulfurization with coal granular activated carbon

Coal granular activated carbon for desulphurisation is made of high quality natural coal, refined by physical activation method, black granular, non-toxic and odourless, with large sulphur capacity, high desulphurisation efficiency, good mechanical strength, low penetration resistance and easy to regenerate.Widely used in gas desulphurisation in thermal power plants, petrochemicals, coal gas, natural gas and so on.

5, fine desulfurization activated carbon

Fine desulphurisation activated carbon is made of high quality columnar activated carbon as carrier, loaded with special catalyst and catalytic additives, dried, screened and packaged into highly efficient and precise gas-phase room temperature fine desulphurisation agent.

It is mainly applied to ammonia, methanol, methane, food carbon dioxide, polypropylene and other production processes in the refined desulphurisation, but also for gas, natural gas, hydrogen, ammonia and other gases refined dechlorination, desulphurisation.

6, protective granular activated carbon

Granular activated carbon for protection is made of high quality raw materials (coal, fruit shells), and the granular activated carbon refined by physical activation method is used as the carrier, and the activated carbon is manufactured by advanced process equipment and strictly controlled special process conditions.Reasonable distribution of aperture, high abrasion strength, widely used in phosgene synthesis, PVC synthesis, vinyl acetate synthesis and other projects, and effective protection against ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, phosgene, benzene series of substances and other toxic gas protection.