Activated Carbon, Purity : 100%

Definition :

Activated carbons are versatile adsorbents. Their adsorptive properties are due to their high surface area, a microporous structure, and a high degree of surface reactivity. They are, used, therefore, to purify, decolorize, deodorize, dechlorinate, separate, and concentrate in order to permit recovery and to filter, remove, or modify the harmful constituents from gases and liquid solutions. Consequently, activated carbon adsorption is of interest to many economic sectors and concern areas as diverse as food, pharmaceutical, chemical, petroleum, nuclear, automobile, and vacuum industries as well as for the treatment of drinking water, industrial and urban waste water, and industrial flue gases.

Process Technology :

Their preparation involves two main steps: the carbonization of the carbonaceous raw material at temperatures below 800°C and the activation of the carbonized product. Thus, all carbonaceous materials can be converted into activated carbon, although the properties of the final product will be different, depending on the nature of the raw material used, the nature of the activating agent, and the conditions of the carbonization and  activation processes. But only a good hard biomass used as activated charcoal such as coconut shell and palm shell. Air pollution control requires a different adsorption setup to deal with larger concentrations of the pollutants. The saturated carbon needs to be regenerated by steam, air, or nontoxic gaseous treatments. These two applications require activated carbons with different porous structures. The carbons required for the purification of air in inhabited spaces should be highly microporous to affect greater adsorption at lower concentrations. In the case of activated carbons for air pollution control, the pores should have higher adsorption capacity in the concentration range 10 to 500 ppm.

Market :

The global activated carbon industry is estimated to be around 1.1 million metric ton. Demand for virgin activated carbon is expected to rise by around 10% annually through 2014, worldwide. The U.S is
the largest market, which will also pace global growth based on anticipated new federal regulations mandating mercury removal at coal-fired power plants. Nearly 80% of the total active carbon is consumed for liquid-phase applications, and the gas-phase applications consume about 20% of the total production. Because the active carbon application for
the treatment of waste water is picking up, the production of active carbons is always increasing. The consumption of active carbon is the highest in the U.S. and Japan, which together consume two to four times more active carbons than European and other Asian countries. The per capital consumption of active carbons per year is 0.5 kg in Japan, 0.4 kg in
the U.S., 0.2 kg in Europe, and 0.03 kg in the rest of the world. This is due to the fact that Asian countries by and large have not started using active carbons for water and air pollution control purposes in large quantities.