Activated Carbon Today

Water filtration has always been an issue with pools and water treatment plants. Nowadays, consumers often acquire their own personal water filtration systems for their home use. Many of these systems use activated carbon filters in various forms.

Activated Carbon filters are used for drinking water, air purification and capturing toxins from painting, gasoline dispensing or other hazardous waste clean-ups.

Activated carbon is also used on its own to treat poisoning either accidental or deliberate in hospital emergency rooms and medical clinics. When activated carbon is given for poisonings it is given at the rate of 1 gram per kilogram of body weight, the poisoning could be either from poison or a drug overdose. It comes in containers that hold 12.5 to 25 grams that can be mixed with water and is referred to as Activated Charcoal, with brand names such as SuperChar, Actidose and so on. Activated charcoal in tablets is used for indigestion, diarrhea and gas. This charcoal can be used to lower blood alcohol content, as well, by taking it prior to drinking alcoholic beverages.

Powder activated carbon is made by crushing or grinding carbon particles and then passing this product through a sieve. The properly crushed carbon will carry through this sieve with from 95% up to 100% success. Another term for powder activated carbon is PAC. PAC is added to water intake systems, rapid mix basins, gravity filters and other clarifying networks. The fine powder is best used for large filtration applications since the powder will suffer too much head if housed in smaller portions. The size of a powdered activated carbon granule will be 1.0 millimeter with a diameter from 15 mm and .25 mm.

Carbons such as powder activated carbon are produced not only from raw materials such as coal, but also from raw materials such as nutshells or wood. High temperatures from 600 to 900 degrees Centigrade are applied to create the desired physical trait. Also chemical are added to the base material, mostly acids or salts phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide or zinc chloride are used for this.

Granular activated carbon is a little larger than powder activated carbon and is used for water treatment. The carbons of this size are perfect for absorbing gases and vapors.

Tags: Powder activated carbon

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Powder activated carbon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.