Uses of Carbon Filters

Carbon filters have been used for several hundred years and are considered one of the oldest means of water purification. Historians have shown evidence that carbon filtration may have been used in ancient Egyptian cultures for both air and water sanitization

The first modern use of a carbon filter to purify potable water occurred in 1862. Carbon filtration was further advanced in the mid-1970s by H. Allen Rice and Alvin E.

Rice when they first manufactured a porous carbon block for drinking water use. Currently, carbon filters are used in individual homes as point-of-use water filters, groundwater remediation and, occasionally, in municipal water treatment facilities.

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They are also used as pre-treatment devices for reverse osmosis systems and as specialized filters designed to remove chlorine-resistant cysts, such as giardia and cryptosporidium.

1. Hydrogen Production

For small-scale production of hydrogen water purifiers are installed to prevent formation of minerals on the surface of the electrodes and to remove organics and chlorine from utility water.

First the water passes through a 20 micrometer interference (mesh or screen filter) filter to remove sand and dust particles, second, a charcoal filter (activated carbon) to remove organics and chlorine, third stage, a de-ionizing filter to remove metallic ions.

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A test can be done before and after the filter for proper functioning on barium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium and silicon.

2. Radiation or Nuclear Medicine

Carbon filters, along with HEPA filters, are widely used in the construction of hot cells. This allows the room to exhaust air that contains infinitesimal quantities of radioactivity and contaminants.