Carbon Filters
Purifying your water
Carbon attracts and absorbs toxins. In hospitals across the Western world, carbon in the form of charcoal remains the chosen method of removing poisons from living tissue. In water purification, there are two common types: carbon block filters and activated carbon filters. Some contaminants these filters can remove include chlorine, organics, pesticides, giardia and cryptosporidium cysts. They are also successful in removing bad tastes and odors from drinking water.
Carbon block filters are more effective than activated carbon filters. These are created with an intricate maze within the block that forces every water particle of impurity into contact. These impurities include all microscopic organisms as well as chemicals that have been dissolved into the water.
When carbon is activated it possesses a slight electro-positive charge, which makes it even more attractive to chemicals and contaminants. These are effective at removing a high percentage of contaminants especially when they are new. These do decrease in effectiveness over time.
Activated carbon filters suffer from an essential flaw, sometimes called channeling. This is a kind of micro-erosion, in which tiny channels are created within the carbon, and impurities are allowed to flow right on through. The channeling can also create inlets within the filter where impurities can settle; organic impurities can even grow in these little flaws in the filter.
This is why these need to be replaced regularly. Some carbon filters come with a built-in timer that tells you when you need to change the filter. If the filter is not replaced, you can actually do yourself double harm – you lose water filtering and impurities that have accumulated or multiplied within the filter are introduced into your water.
Activated carbon is effective for the removal of many impurities, and it is also used in air filtering. In its densest and newest forms, it can effectively remove microorganisms and many dissolved chemicals. It is not considered effective against water hardness and some heavy metals.
Carbon is an important component in many water treatment systems. The popular Brita™ brand filter uses activated carbon.
Did you know?
The adsorption of carbon is caused by a molecular force called the London Dispersion Force. This force works in a manner similar to the gravitational forces between planets and other heavenly bodies.
