Can i reuse activated charcoal

So naturally, the more surface area that a piece of carbon has, the more stuff it can convince to stay with it. So things that smell bad, like fried fish? The bad smell is caused by oils in the air. These volatile oils that cause the bad smell are attracted to carbon. When it comes to purifying your water, the same principle applies. And it happens very quickly. Because of the bond types that are formed, the impurities that are trapped on carbon are very difficult to remove.

This brings us to how activated charcoal is made. In order to make activated charcoal with all its nooks and crannies, regular carbon sources are transformed in one of two ways: either physically or chemically.

In physical activation, wood, coal, or any regular carbon source is first heated up to to degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit in a chamber filled with inert gas. Instead, as the carbon is heated, any impurities left on it are vaporized and removed, leaving nothing but pure carbon. Next, the pure carbon is exposed to oxygen or steam baths at even higher temperatures. This causes the carbon to fracture and form the fractal shapes with their extremely large total surface area.

In chemical activation, raw carbon sources are mixed with an acid, base, or a salt. The mixture is then heated. Chemical activation takes less heat and less time to achieve the end result, which makes it the method of choice for large scale activation. Unfortunately, like most good things, activated carbon eventually stops working.

When that happens, your air no longer gets clean and your water starts tasting a little strange again. Carbon is very commonly used in water filtration for its ability to remove chlorine that is often used by municipal water sources to purify the water of bacteria and other harmful organic organisms.

Depending on how close you are to the water treatment facility, you may have a very high level of chlorine or you may have none at all. As chlorine disinfects your water supply, it will lose potency.

In other words, the usefulness of chlorine is not endless, for every little bit of disinfecting that chlorine does, it uses up some of its strength. So if you are using public water supply from a city, town or development, you should check for chlorine in your water and use a carbon filter to remove it. Carbon is also very effective at filtering tiny particles that cause odors as they are too small for most other filters to filter out. Both odors in the water and in the air can be filtered out to a point using a carbon filter, and both wet and dry filters can be cleaned and reused a few times.

The carbon itself will continue to filter both water or air as long as the pores on the surface of the carbon are free of debris that would inhibit the water or air to pass through the carbon. So if we can loosen up any debris in the pores of the carbon and rinse it away, the carbon will continue to work as a fine particle filter.

Second , since we are going to be cleaning the carbon filter, we want to clean the housing that the filter sits in as well. Vacuum out the housing with a crevice attachment and wipe it down with a damp cloth if necessary to ensure that there is no leftover debris that will clog up the filter after you replace it.

Third , use your vacuum to remove as much debris from the filter as possible. Clean the towel and ring it out thoroughly, then wipe the filter down again until you no longer see much dirt coming off the filter. Fourth , let the filter dry completely. Leave the filter out in the sun for a few hours or in a very dry area of the home to allow it to dry before putting it back into the filter housing. Just get the majority of the dirt off the filter so you can reuse it a few times.

Remember, you only want to reuse the filter a few times, after you have cleaned it two or three times the pores of the carbon will no longer be able to allow proper airflow.

To clean a wet carbon filter we want to first prepare a simple cleaning solution. I recommend using distilled water that has been heated as much as is you can, up to a temperature that is still comfortable to the touch. We also want to get a bucket full of clean water to rinse out the filter housing after we clean it. This does not have to be distilled water, regular tap water should be fine. Next, add a few drops of dishwashing liquid to the distilled water and give it a stir to mix it in.

Make this solution in a big enough container to fully submerge the filter cartridge that we are going to be cleaning. First , depressurize the filter housing by shutting off the water going to the filter and shutting off the water after the filter.

Next, press down the pressure relief button on the top of the filter housing, a small amount of water may dribble out but that is perfectly normal.

Things You'll Need. When the solution has been absorbed, add more solution to the container. Repeat this many times. Bake the charcoal in an oven at degrees Fahrenheit for an hour or two. Related Articles How to Neutralize an Acid. How to Make Acetate From Vinegar. How to Make Homemade Glow Sticks. How to Make a Bromothymol Blue Solution.