Charcoal filters - for water and gas filtration

But how do charcoal filters work? Can you just use any charcoal and expect to have a charcoal filter that works? The answer is no. Charcoal filters are made of activated carbon.

Charcoal is basically one form of carbon, carbon being something that appears in all organisms – hence the expression that life on planet earth is carbon based.
When the charcoal (carbon) is exposed to large doses of oxygen, then pores start to appear in the charcoal, and now it is “activated”.

The small pores cause the charcoal to have an extremely large surface area which allow the charcoal to adhere to some types of impurities that pass through it.

Activated charcoal is good at trapping other carbon-based impurities, as well as things like chlorine. Because they do not bond well with carbon, charcoal filters do not remove microbes, nitrates, sodium, and fluoride.

Because the filter is so fine, and many gases are carbon based, charcoal filters are very good at removing odors, such as cigarette smoke, cooking odors, and fumes.

Over time the small pores in the filter’s charcoal get filled up, the filter becomes less efficient, and at some stage needs replacing.

One issue with activated charcoal filters used to filtrate water is that the pores become a breeding ground for bacteria. It is therefore important that the water that is filtered is bacteria free – this is the case with most municipal drinking water.

In any case, it is a good idea to flush out bacteria every morning or any other time of the day when the filter has not been used for several hours. Just let the tap run for about 30 seconds prior to use, and the water filtered after this flushing will have much lower levels of bacteria.

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