What Makes Carbon Filters Essential?
Most water companies out there are using a carbon based filter. Most companies out there will leave it just at that without much explanation. Maybe you’re wondering to yourself “How exactly do carbon filters work and why does it have to be carbon?”
Carbon filtering is a method of filtering that uses a bed of activated carbon to remove contaminants and impurities, using chemical adsorption. It does this by absorption: pollutant molecules in the fluid to be treated are trapped inside the pore structure of the carbon. Activated carbon is so effective at absorption that 1 pound of carbon has the power to cover 100 acres of surface area. Activated carbon filters are most effective at removing chlorine, sediment, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), taste and odor from water. So what makes carbon filters different from each other?
The carbon must first become “activated”. To activate carbon, the source material must go through a process of which it is heated to high temperatures from steam. The activation process generates a network of tiny openings (pore or cavities) of different diameters on the carbon surface which become the path for water to access the extended internal surface created by the activation. The sources of activated carbon are mostly: coal (anthracite, bituminous, lignite), coconut shells, peat and petroleum based residues. These sources after activation have different size pores for the absorption process.
Peat and Petroleum have pores that are the largest, or macro-pores.
Charcoal have pores that are somewhere in the middle, or meso-pores.
Coconut Shell have the smallest size pores, or micro-pores.
The micro-pores are the most important because they match the size of contaminant molecules in drinking water and therefore are very effective in trapping them. Coconut shell after activation has about 85-90% mirco-pores. This is the most effective way to filter out water.
Here at One Water Systems we use only the highest grade coconut shell activated carbon in our systems. We do this to ensure you have the cleanest water possible to go throughout your whole home. Give us a call today to help you get started on having clean water coming from every faucet in your home!
(760) 994-4795
