Carbon Filtering

Carbon filtering is a filtration method that passes a fluid through a bed of activated carbon, using adsorption to strip out impurities. Because activated carbon has an enormous internal surface area, it captures a wide range of contaminants, including chlorine, sediment, volatile organic compounds and odor-causing compounds, while leaving dissolved minerals and salts untouched, which is the main limitation of the method for treating drinking water. In an energy setting the same adsorption principle underlies vehicle emission control systems and the cleanup of industrial gas streams, alongside a much broader set of everyday uses, from household water filters and air purifiers to respirator masks, cigarette filters, sugarcane refining, coffee decaffeination and gold recovery. The wide range of applications means carbon filtering shows up at energy facilities mainly as one tool among several for controlling emissions and gas quality rather than as a source of power on its own. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/