# activated charcoal



## zauggart (Dec 30, 2009)

hi there
does anybody out there have a good recipe for making activated charcoal ? Any help would be great!
thanks
Ian


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## ander (Dec 30, 2009)

I think you can make it of charcoal used for grill, must be god one- well 'mineralised'-all organic particles destroyed, should not smoke at heating without air. Grind to 1/16-1/8 inch- sieve. Boil with muriatic, wash it with plenty of water (and boil), then heat it wet in closed can with small hole over open flame until all steam will go , then heat 10 minutes and leave it to cool down- cover the hole with something. Do not open hot can. I personally never tried before, I hope it should work.


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## butcher (Dec 30, 2009)

that sound similar to making charcoal from wood.would that create activated charcoal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon
http://www.omri.org/AC_livestock.pdf


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## ander (Dec 30, 2009)

Activated charcoal nad carbon are preety same thing. Charcoal is made of wood. Carbon is chemical name co element. Properly treated charcoal is almost pure carbon. In my language coal=carbon. We only add "black" or "brown" or "activated" or "elemental"- and all is clear. Activated charcoal should be made of wood therefore. Activated carbon can be made of lot of things like bones/, black/brown coal, organic compounds. It's name for wide range of products.


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## chemist (Dec 30, 2009)

As I recall, a lot of activated charcoal for water purification systems is made from coconut shells that are heated in an environment that has very little oxygen. But, I doubt that you have easy access to free coconut shells in Canada.


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## Noxx (Dec 30, 2009)

You can't make activated charcoal easily unless you have some expensive equipment. Why not buy it ? As far as I know, it is not very expensive, unless you want some very fine powder.


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## ander (Dec 30, 2009)

As Noxx wrote, don't bother yourself with making one. Home made stuff is rarely as good as industrial. In my country drug stores sell activated carbon in tablets blended with sugar. It is used for poisoning/digestion troubles treatment. It's of course much more expensive than plain one, and you have to remove sugar to use it. What what purpose do you want to use it?


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## zauggart (Jan 4, 2010)

i wanted to try some experiments with filtering using it and didn't want to get in to too much money . Also i was wondering if you filtered some of these Pm's through it . Then after awile just burn the charcoal for metal clinkers. Its is just an idea but has me wondering !
thanks
Ian


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## butcher (Jan 5, 2010)

it is easy to find and cheap,check out fish tank supply's aquarium filters, or drug store, wal-mart and so on.


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