Activated carbon

[suhasnatyan]

thats good, keep it up.

Today i want to discuss one thing more about active carbons, do you have any idea how many wastewater treatment plants in US or other parts of world use activated carbon??

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[YT2095]

not a clue in all honesty, I should imagine it would be very expensive!

I know Aluminium Sulphate is used as a floculent do drop out impurities, and AC is used (small scale) alot, but not for domestic usage as a rule.

I could be wrong though!

[suhasnatyan]

These days, i have seen that v. small scale/domestic water purifiers use three step water purification system, ion exchange, activated carbon adsorption and UV treatment, but YT is right that they are expensive..

 

Can we mix, some PAC with flocculant?

[YT2095]

not at the same time I shouldn`t imagine, as it`s particles such as that (and others) the flocculant is targeting.

it would be self defeating to do them both at the same time/stage.

[suhasnatyan]

When was activated carbon discovered, like it is usually said it was discovered by Ostreijko in 1901. BUT what i want to know is that was it dscovered by Egyptians or Ancient Indus inhabitants(Aryans) or Romans. Reason of my question is that i read in books all three names but still i do not know when it was really used FIRST TIME

[suhasnatyan]

Is it possible to dissolve activated carbon in some chemicals?? and if yes then how can we test it??

[woelen]

Dissolving any form of carbon is extremely difficult. There are some compounds, in which it dissolves, but then it reacts chemically. I do not know any solvent, which dissolves carbon, without changing it chemically.

 

It is also easy to understand, why carbon cannot be dissolved without changing it. Carbon does not form small molecules, but it forms macroscopic molecules (sheets in graphite, irregular structures in charcoal, 3 regular 3D structure in diamond). Dissolving would mean that bonds have to be broken.

 

A similar thing is true for red phosphorous and vitreous (black) selenium. These also form large macro-molecules and cannot be dissolved.

 

A compound like sulphur has S8 molecules, white phosphorous has P4 molecules and red selenium has Se8 molecules. These all can be dissolved in certain solvents (CS2, toluene).

[YT2095]

and in addition, were AC to be dissolved anyway, it would cease to be of any use, AC relies upon its pourus structure to function, a bit like Zeolite.

there are however Suspension of AC made and used in hospitals to absorb toxins from the stomach, these will work, but they aren`t dissolved.

[suhasnatyan]

As activated carbon has all types of functional groups, then why it is not reactive?? They can play some role..

[suhasnatyan]

How much is the life of activated carbon (assuming it is pure) ??