Activated carbon is used in gas purification, decaffeination, gold purification, metal extraction, water purification, medicine, sewage treatment, air filters in gas masks and respirators, filters in compressed air and many other applications.
* Gas purification
Filters with activated carbon are usually used in compressed air and gas purification to remove oil vapors, odor, and other hydrocarbons from the air. The most common designs use a 1-stage or 2 stage filtration principle in which activated carbon is embedded inside the filter media.
Activated carbon is also used in spacesuit Primary Life Support Systems.
Activated carbon filters are used to retain radioactive gases within the air vacuumed from a nuclear boiling water reactor turbine condenser.The large charcoal beds absorb these gases and retain them while they rapidly decay to non-radioactive solid species. The solids are trapped in the charcoal particles, while the filtered air passes through.
* Water Treatment
The coconut shell activated carbon has the features of highly developed pore structure, large specific surface area, good hardness, good stability, easy regeneration ,etc. It is widely used for water purification/water treatment in beverage industry, thermal power plants and nuclear industry.
*Gold Mining
The coconut shell activated carbon has the features of highly developed pore structure, large specific
surface area, good hardness, excellent adsorption capacity, absorption speed, easy desorption,
repeated regeneration etc. It is mainly used in extracting gold by CIP (carbon-in-pulp) method.
*Respirators/Protective Masks Uses
The main process is to choose the best quality, the best porosity of activated carbon as based carbon,and made it after finishing treatment, dipping chemical catalyst, temperature pyrolysis, drying, dedusting and other processing procedures . Products have a large surface area, fast chemical catalytic reaction, good anti-virus performance, high mechanical strength, and easy to produce charcoal，which is widely used in military and civilian gas masks, protective masks, various types of canisters, cartridges, anti-virus filters and special fume hood filter plate ,etc
*super-capacitor
activated carbon for super-capacitor is produced by various nut shell, after chemical activation and special refined post-processing . This product has an extremely well-developed pore structure and high specific surface area,low ash content, high energy density and power density, the charging time is short, the charge-discharge efficiency,high
charge and discharge cycles,good electrochemical stability,environmentally friendly, wide temperature range and other characteristics. Widely used in electric vehicles,hybrid vehicles, electric tools, electric toys,railway systems, power systems battery cathode materials field.
*Medical uses
Activated carbon is used to treat poisonings and overdoses following oral ingestion. It is not effective for a number of poisonings including strong acids or alkali, cyanide, iron, lithium, arsenic, methanol, ethanol or ethylene glycol.Tablets or capsules of activated carbon are used in many countries as an over-the-counter drug to treat diarrhea, indigestion, and flatulence.
*Adverse effects
Incorrect application (e.g., into the lungs) results in pulmonary aspiration which can sometimes be fatal if immediate medical treatment is not initiated. The use of activated carbon is contraindicated when the ingested substance is an acid, an alkali, or a petroleum product.
*Analytical chemistry applications
Activated carbon, in 50% w/w combination with celite, is used as stationary phase in low-pressure chromatographic separation of carbohydrates (mono-, di-trisaccharides) using ethanol solutions as mobile phase in analytical or preparative protocols.
*Environmental applications
Activated carbon is usually used in water filtration systems. In this illustration, the activated carbon is in the fourth level (counted from bottom).
*Agriculture uses
Activated carbon (charcoal) is an allowed substance used by organic farmers in both livestock production and wine making. In livestock production it is used as a pesticide, animal feed additive, processing aid, nonagricultural ingredient and disinfectant. In organic winemaking, activated carbon is allowed for use as a processing agent to absorb brown color pigments from white grape concentrates.
*Distilled alcoholic beverage purification
Activated carbon filters (AC filters) can be used to filter vodka and whiskey of organic impurities which can affect color, taste, and odor. Passing an organically impure vodka through an activated carbon filter at the proper flow rate will result in vodka with an identical alcohol content and significantly increased organic purity, as judged by odor and taste.
*Fuel storage
Research is being done testing various activated carbons' ability to store natural gas and hydrogen gas. The porous material acts like a sponge for different types of gases. The gas is attracted to the carbon material via Van der Waals forces. Some carbons have been able to achieve bonding energies of 5KJ per mol . The gas may then be desorbed when subjected to higher temperatures and either combusted to do work or in the case of hydrogen gas extracted for use in a hydrogen fuel cell. Gas storage in activated carbons is an appealing gas storage method because the gas can be stored in a low pressure, low mass, low volume environment that would be much more feasible than bulky on board compression tanks in vehicles. The United States Department of Energy has specified certain goals to be achieved in the area of research and development of nano-porous carbon materials. All of the goals are yet to be satisfied but numerous institutions, including the ALL-CRAFT program
*Chemical purification
Activated carbon is commonly used on the laboratory scale to purify solutions of organic molecules containing unwanted colored organic impurities.
*Mercury scrubbing
Activated carbon, often infused with sulfur or iodine, is widely used to trap mercury emissions from coal-fired power stations, medical incinerators, and from natural gas at the wellhead. This carbon is a specialty product costing more than US$4.00 per kg. However, it is often not recycled.
