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 What is activated carbon made from?
Activated carbon can be manufactured from any organic material containing carbon. Commercial carbons are made from sawdust, wood, charcoal, peat, lignite, petroleum coke, bituminous coal, and coconut shells. Gowrishankar Chemicals offers activated carbon products made exclusively from coconut shell. We choose this raw materials in order to provide the best activated carbon with high surface area and aberration resistant to our customers.
How is activated carbon produced at Gowrishankar Chemicals?
The coconut shell charcoal is sized to pre activation size through size reduction and sizing and this pre determined sized charcoal is fed to activation kilns which are maintained at around 900 deg C. Steam and controlled oxygen produce verity of pores in the charcoal which is responsible for The activation process creates a highly porous graphitic plate structure with tremendous surface area.
How much surface area does activated carbon have?
A single kg of activated carbon has the surface area equal to 250 acres.
How much does it weigh?
Pure carbon weighs about 2000 kg per cu.m. It is much denser than activated carbon. During the manufacturing process the structure is “opened up," creating porosity (pore volume) inside the granule. The finished product has a density between 500 to 700 kg per cu.m.
How much void space is in carbon?
A container of carbon is roughly 20% carbon, 40% interstitial space (the volume between the carbon granules), and 40% pore volume (the volume inside the carbon granules). Another way to visualize this is: If you had a 100 lit drum full of dry carbon, you could add 80 lit of water to the drum before it would overflow. Therefore, 80 percent of the drum volume is air.
In liquid applications, why is it important to deaerate (fully wet) the carbon?
A container of carbon is roughly 20% carbon, 40% interstitial space (the volume between the carbon granules), and 40% pore volume (the volume inside the carbon granules). If air remains in the pore volume, the fluid being treated cannot migrate to the adsorption sites. The air becomes a barrier to the carbon functioning properly.
How long does it take to fully wet the carbon?
Typically, Gowrishankar Chemicals recommends filling the system with the fluid you will be treating and allowing the system to sit idle for 24 hours. This time will allow the fluid to displace all of the air in the pores of the carbon. After the system has been idle for 24 hours, the next step is to use an upflow backwash to displace any air that has been trapped in the carbon bed. This backwash will also remove most of the carbon fines in the system.
What is this pore space?
The pictures shows the pores in coconut shell based activated carbon under a electron microscope
The pore space is the internal volume of the carbon granule. It consists of all the cracks and crevices created when the coal is crushed and glued back together, and the volume between the graphite plates. The distance between the graphite plates determines whether the space is an adsorption pore or a transport pore.
What is an adsorption pore?
Adsorption pores are the internal volume where the graphitic plates are very close together creating a higher energy. Higher energy is important to adsorption because it is the energy that “holds” the contaminant (the carbon “adsorbs” the contaminant). The volume where the graphite plates are far apart and the cracks and crevices make up the transport pores. It is important to note that all adsorption takes place in the adsorption pores and not the transport pores.
How is activated carbon produced at Gowrishankar Chemicals?
Activated carbon can be manufactured from any organic material containing carbon. Commercial carbons are made from sawdust, wood, charcoal, peat, lignite, petroleum coke, bituminous coal, and coconut shells. Gowrishankar Chemicals offers activated carbon products made exclusively from coconut shell. We choose this raw materials in order to provide the best activated carbon with high surface area and aberration resistant to our customers.
For many years, the food processing industry has been using activated carbon (granular and powdered forms) to remove taste, odor, chlorine and chloramine from water supplies.
More recently, both government and industry have raised new concerns about the increased incidence of surface and groundwater supplies contaminated with hazardous organic compounds. Because of the potential health risks associated with ingestion of contaminated water, many food processors, particularly those using water as an ingredient in their product, use activated carbon to remove trace organic chemicals.
By filtering their water supplies through a properly designed activated carbon system, food processors can maintain a consistently high quality product. They can assure their consumers of protection against undesirable contamination of their product. Activated carbon filtration equipment is relatively simple to install, operate and maintain.
Carbon systems used in the food processing and beverage industries are generally supplied through equipment manufacturers dealing in water treatment equipment. Carbon specialists from Gowrishankar Chemicals can work closely with you and/or equipment manufacturers to determine the feasibility and economics of a carbon system to satisfy your particular requirements. Gowrishankar Chemicals will follow through with complete assistance to assure successful operation of the system that will help you meet your operating objectives.
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    :: FAQ's
 
• What do you mean - an adsorption pore is a higher-energy area?
There is a natural attractive force between all things in the universe. Gravity is one of these forces. In adsorption theory, the force between the contaminate and the carbon is the adsorptive force. It technically is a Van der Waals force. It is this attractive force that enables adsorption to occur. The forces are a function of the distance between the two objects. The closer together the objects are, the higher the attractive force is. The higher the attractive force, the higher the “energy” level of the pore space.
• What is a transport pore?
Transport pores are the internal volume of the carbon granule where the graphitic plates are far apart or the cracks and crevices of the particle. The transport pores act as the “highways” for the contaminants to reach the adsorption pores where they are adsorbed. It is important to note that no adsorption takes place in the transport pores. Transport pores are vitally important, as they allow access to the adsorption pores – especially those deeper within the carbon granule.
• How does the carbon remove thecontaminant?
Once the contaminant enters the carbon granule via the transport pore space, it diffuses into the carbon matrix until it enters the smaller pores where the adsorptive forces begin to take effect. Once it reaches a higher-energy area, it can no longer migrate (or diffuse) because the adsorptive force is stronger than the diffusional force. The contaminant is adsorbed to the carbon surface by the adsorptive forces (the Van der Waals forces). In this state, the contaminant is referred to as the adsorbate.
• How much adsorbate can the carbon adsorb?
The amount that the carbon can adsorb is dependent upon the type and concentration of the adsorbate. Generally, the higher the concentration and the larger the molecule, the greater the amount adsorbed. The typical range experienced is about 1 to 35 weight percent. That is, one hundred kg of carbon will adsorb 1 to 35 kg of contaminant. When the maximum amount of adsorbate is on the carbon, the carbon is referred to as being spent or exhausted.
• What happens when the carbon is spent?
The concentration of the adsorbate in the outlet from the carbon column increases as the carbon becomes loaded with adsorbate. The adsorbate concentration increases until the outlet concentration is equal to the inlet concentration because the adsorption pores are filled with contaminant.