Smart carbon and stupid people; a rerun
This post ran originally on 10 January 2010 . About the only thing that's changed is the rate of exchange between the US Dollar and the Euro.
I love my Brita pitcher. I've sung its praises in this space again and again and I'll say it again: I love my Brita pitcher.
Britas, like most gravity-fed water filtration structures, use gravity to pull water through a disc of activated carbon. Activated carbon is quite lots charcoal, it's just a natural form of it it's been dealt with with a purpose to growth the amount of area between the carbon atoms it is crafted from.
Traditionally, charcoal is made through a process called pyrolization. In pyrolization, organic (carbon-based) material like wood or agricultural waste is superheated in an environment devoid of oxygen. In the absence of oxygen, the material can't catch fire and instead its volatile compounds evaporate and leave behind the carbon they were once bonded to. There are a variety of chemical and physical processes available in order to bring about this pyrolytic reaction but all of them yield the same result, a highly porous form of carbon. Its value as a filter comes from two things: the purity of the carbon and the surface area made possible by all of its pores. Get this, a gram of activated carbon can have a surface area that ranges between 300 and 2,000 square meters according to my pals at How Stuff Works .
Carbon filters work through a process calledadsorption. That's adsorption with a D and not a B. As water passes through the microscopic pores in the activated carbon filter, specific organic and inorganic chemicals and elements stick to the surface of the carbon. Think of the difference between adsorption and absorption this way. In absorption, material A gets sucked into the volume of material B. In adsorption, material A sticks to the surface of material B. An even simpler way to think of this that's more or less still accurate is when you wipe up a spill with a paper towel, the paper towel absorbs the spill. When you have a dusty floor and you wipe up the dust with a Swiffer, the Swiffer adsorbs the dust. Make sense?
Carbon filters work terrifically and they remove all manner of organic and inorganic stuff from tap water. Over time though, all of the surface area in the filter available for adsorption gets covered over and they stop being effective. You can't really clean a spent carbon filter, so you just replace them every couple of months. Simple and effective, and once again chemistry is your friend.
Well, a well-meaning but highly suggestible internet pal sent me a link to a solution to a problem that I didn't know I had. Apparently, my disposal of spent carbon filters every couple of months is an environmental crime on par with driving a Hummer or burning coal. Please. Anyhow, she sent me to a link to something called Sort of Coal . I don't really want to provide a link back to them but I suppose I owe them that much since I'm about to use a bunch of their images.
Sort of Coal sells pseudo medical crap and snake oil and that they do it in the shape of some thing they call "white charcoal." The charcoal's nevertheless black of path, but in a international where fact doesn't matter, a steady vocabulary have to no longer be too essential either.
My nicely-which means net pal sent me a link to this product:
It's what Sort of Coal calls Bottle and Kinshu Binchotan. It costs €68 plus Denmark's 25% VAT. That's €85 ($122.45 US) plus shipping. Oh yeah, carbon filtration doesn't happen by osmosis so it's pretty much ineffective as a filter. Sort of Coal doesn't mention how big the bottle is so I can't figure out the cost per serving. So despite the omission of the bottle size it does tell me this:
Serving and drinking neighborhood tap water becomes a natural and delightful each day enjoy ? With Bottle and Kishu Binchotan, each product is given its best complement.
Kishu Binchotan soaks up chlorine from tap water while releasing natural minerals into it. Kishu Binchotan softens the water and improves the overall taste.What a load of BS. Tap water as a "pure and beautiful" daily experience? It's a frickin' glass of water, not an orgasm. It's not even a filtered glass of water at that.
Sort of Coal is going on to ascribe all manner of nonsense to its pyrolized wood. Here's what is referred to as a Hakutan Tray and it's made from charcoal and plastic.
A decorative, purifying tray, made from move-sections of White Charcoal set with compressed charcoal powder and resin. White Charcoal is produced by using hand and is obviously activated in the course of a controlled burning manner. Use a Hakutan tray within the kitchen or residing room. Fruit will continue to be fresh longer whilst placed at the Hakutan tray. Wipe it smooth with a humid material. Do no longer use soap. It remains lively for years if exposed to direct daylight once in a while.
This product is organic and C02 friendly.CO2 friendly? How can something made from partially burned wood and plastic be CO2 friendly? What does CO2 friendly mean anyway? How can a company make a claim like "Fruit will remain fresh longer when placed on the Hakutan Tray" and get away with it? Can they be held responsible for bananas that rot at the same rate that they would on a tray not made from "white charcoal?" If anybody wants to part with €160 ($230.50 US) to find out, let me know how it goes.
The unproven assertions just maintain on coming with these human beings. Check out this:
Welcome to the Hakutan Large. The Hakutan Large is defined accordingly:
Korean White Charcoal stems. White charcoal is made by hand and is evidently activated through a managed burning method. Hakutan absorbs gases, pollutants and odors from the air. It can be located on your lavatory to alter humidity, in the living room and kitchen to absorb cooking steam and odours. For generations human beings in Asia have used it to freshen air and create a better indoor surroundings. Charcoal is likewise utilized in spaces in which there's intensive pc use, as it creates herbal anions and as a consequence has a effective effect on intellectual properly-being. Keep free from dirt. If you refresh it sometimes by means of putting it in direct daylight, you may preserve the Hakutan active for years. Charcoal have to be recycled. White charcoal has a positive impact at the environment even when you get rid of it.
When the time involves get a new Hakutan, overwhelm it and mix it with soil so plant life can advantage from it. This makes Hakutan CO2 friendlySo using this ?One hundred twenty ($172.87) stick of charcoal can have a wonderful impact on my intellectual nicely-being as it releases herbal anions. I love how they pair their absurd claims with they thriller of the Orient. I'm now not Asian however I suppose I'd be insulted if I have been. But at least they explain how they get CO2 pleasant from this.
Some day quickly, I promise, we will have a chat about ions and anions however I suppose I can also have exhausted you guys by now.
Part of me admires the gall of those human beings to make the claims they do and price what they do for this useless rubbish. A larger part of me is appalled at how this type of latest-agey clap lure may be lapped up so quite simply by way of an uncritical public.
The world faces a host of serious environmental problems that need to be addressed if it's to remain a planet fit for human life. The solutions to those problems will come from the fields of chemistry, biology, physics and their allied scientific disciplines. The mechanisms that underlie the physical world can be understood and that understanding only increases their wonder. Really.