What is Activated Carbon?
Many air purifiers implement the use of activated carbon. This enables the air purifier to better remove odors from the air.
Many of the air purifiers that employ activated carbon filters are used in areas where exhaust fumes are prevalent, such as airport hangers, auto repair shops, and painting shops.
Activated carbon is a commonly thrown around term in the world of air purifiers, but many might not know exactly what this means.
Purification of Air and Liquids
Activated carbon is used in air and liquid purification. An example of air purification would be a typical home-use air purifier. An example of liquid purification would be a filter on a fish tank that uses activated carbon to clean impurities from the water.
Activated carbon is manufactured from a variety of sources. The most common sources are coal, wood, lignite, and coconut shells. The process of creating the activated carbon includes first carbonizing the raw material at low temperatures, and then activating the carbon in a high temperature steam process.
How Does Activate Carbon Work?
Activated carbon can be viewed as a sponge for gases. The more carbon that an air filter has inside of it, the more gases (and odors) it can soak up. Through a physical and chemical process, any gases and odors in the air will adhere to the carbon’s surface, thus removing them from the air as air passed through the carbon filter.
Activated carbon has a slight electro-positive charge added to it, making it even more attractive to chemicals and impurities. As air or water passes over the positively charged carbon surface, the negative ions of the contaminants are drawn to the surface of the carbon granules. That’s pretty much how it works.
What is Activated Carbon Good For?
An activated carbon filter in side of an air purification system will battle all of the odors and smells inside of the room that the air purifier is running in.
If you smoke cigarettes in your home, activated carbon will help remove the odor of cigarette smoke. If you cook very aromatic foods or fried foods, activated carbon will clear the air of the cooking smells. If you have pet odors, activated carbon will help battle down the pet odors.
You get the idea.
Using Activated Carbon
Now that you know what activated carbon is, you will be better educated when looking at the different models of air purifiers that might fit your situation. If you want to combat odors as well as air particles and contaminants, you should definitely find an air purifier that employs an activated carbon filter in addition to a HEPA filter or other similar air particle filter.
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Filed under: Air Purifier Technology
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