Active Carbon Bed Filter

Carbon Bed Filters are of vertical fabricated construction generally mounted on skirts.

In operation, the process fluid enters the filter above the bed, through the inlet nozzle and via radial distribution lateral, designed to ensure an even flow distribution over the top surface of the carbon.
The contaminated medium passes through the granular activated carbon bed, where the impurities are attracted to the very high surface area of the Carbon.

The carbon bed is supported on a graded 'Silex' base consisting of a course and fine layer of which will fully support large volumes of carbon.

The treated fluid then passes through a layer of fine and coarse Silex to a lower radial collection system. The Coarse and fine Silex is installed only as bed support and is not part of the process.

Housed in the fine 'Silex' support are the collection laterals, which gather the process fluid once it has passed through the carbon bed.

Both the collection and distribution laterals are manufactured from stainless steel wedge wire.

The carbon is manufactured from bituminous coal by steam activation using purpose built equipment. Temperatures of between 850 and 1000° C produce a highly porous structure in the carbon allowing it to efficiently remove and trap organic compounds with extremely high capacity.

Various grades of carbon can be offered to suit a particular process with bed depth and contact times optimised to achieve the necessary adsorption performance.

Carbon Recycling

In most instances the spent carbon can be re-cycled.
The re-cycling process is performed by a controlled heat and controlled oxygen process with exact detail established from samples by test.
These tests also determine regeneration suitability and in instances where regeneration can not be achieved than disposal will be necessary.

Most petrochemical installations have procedures to deal with spent media such as sand, resin, catalysts etc. and the disposal of spent carbon would have to follow this philosophy.