Do you know how important is activated carbon in our daily life? Well, many of us don’t have any idea about this. Activated carbon plays a significant role in today’s life. The water you drink is purified with the help of this carbon, the air you breathe in is also scrubbed clean with this, the food you eat is also purified from activated charcoal, the clothes you wear is made with it, you can heal illness with it and people also go to war with activated charcoal.
Activated carbon is extensively used for diverse military, scientific and industrial purposes –
- Oil refining
- Bleaching of oil
- Water purification
- Solvent recovery
- Gold and other metal recovery
- Prime ingredient in filters and gas masks that removes biochemical or toxic gases
Thus, it is clear that activated carbon is a widely used element across the world today. It has extensive use in water purification because its huge surface area and high porosity make it an effective absorbent material. Natural substances that constitute the base material of activated carbon are – coconut shell, wood, peat, anthracite and bituminous coal and lignite.
Multiple Uses of Coconut-shell Based Activated Carbon
- Majority of micro pores of coconut shell activated charcoal is very small and hence, they are efficient in trapping organic chemical substances like organic volatile compounds, herbicides, pesticides and tri-halo methane present in drinking water.
- Due these micro pores, this carbon has tight structure and great mechanical strength thereby providing it with high resistance against any kind of wear and tear resulting out of friction. All these properties make coconut shell activated carbon best suitable filters for chemical and industrial works.
- At the time of small scale as well as large scale water purification, coconut shell-based activated charcoal also helps in removing impurities and halogens from water. This improves the taste, appearance and quality of water.
- Finer variety of this carbon, called food grade charcoal has utility in varied medical purposes like removal of contaminated and poisonous substances from the digestive system of human beings. This directly helps in digestion of food. This finer variety of charcoal also plays a significant role in kidney and liver dialysis and blood purification.
You will be surprised to know that activated carbon also helps in moving mountains, exploring oceans’ depth and furthest point in this universe, makes sparkling nights and cleans up mistakes that human beings make due to advancement of science. Yet, it is still considered as the “least celebrated” ingredient in this world.