Smart carbon and stupid people
I love my Brita pitcher. I've sung its praises in this area repeatedly and I'll say it once more: I love my Brita pitcher.
Britas, like maximum gravity-fed water filtration systems, use gravity to tug water through a disc of activated carbon. Activated carbon is quite lots charcoal, it's just a natural shape of it that is been treated in an effort to boom the amount of space among the carbon atoms it's 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 scientific crap and snake oil and they do it inside the shape of something they name "white charcoal." The charcoal's nonetheless black of course, but in a global where fact doesn't matter, a steady vocabulary have to now not be too vital either.
My nicely-which means internet pal despatched 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 ingesting nearby tap water will become a pure and delightful daily revel in ? With Bottle and Kishu Binchotan, every product is given its ideal supplement.
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 "natural and delightful" daily experience? It's a frickin' glass of water, no longer an orgasm. It's no longer even a filtered glass of water at that.
Sort of Coal goes on to ascribe all way of nonsense to its pyrolized wooden. Here's what's called a Hakutan Tray and it's made from charcoal and plastic.
I don't have any concept how huge it's far, but Sort of Coal tells me this:
A decorative, purifying tray, crafted from cross-sections of White Charcoal set with compressed charcoal powder and resin. White Charcoal is produced by hand and is obviously activated at some point of a managed burning method. Use a Hakutan tray inside the kitchen or dwelling room. Fruit will stay fresh longer while placed on the Hakutan tray. Wipe it easy with a damp cloth. Do no longer use cleaning soap. It remains energetic for years if exposed to direct sunlight from time to time.
This product is organic and C02 pleasant.
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 hold on coming with these humans. Check out this:
Welcome to the Hakutan Large. The Hakutan Large is defined therefore:
Korean White Charcoal stems. White charcoal is made by using hand and is certainly activated through a controlled burning method. Hakutan absorbs gases, pollutants and odors from the air. It can be placed in your bathroom to regulate humidity, in the residing room and kitchen to soak up cooking steam and odours. For generations people in Asia have used it to freshen air and create a higher indoor surroundings. Charcoal is likewise used in spaces in which there is extensive pc use, because it creates herbal anions and thus has a nice impact on intellectual properly-being. Keep free from dust. If you refresh it now and again with the aid of putting it in direct sunlight, you could keep the Hakutan active for years. Charcoal should be recycled. White charcoal has a tremendous effect on the surroundings even while you get rid of it.
When the time comes to get a new Hakutan, weigh down it and blend it with soil so vegetation can benefit from it. This makes Hakutan CO2 friendly
So using this ?One hundred twenty ($172.87) stick of charcoal will have a fantastic effect on my intellectual well-being as it releases natural anions. I love how they pair their absurd claims with they thriller of the Orient. I'm no longer Asian but I think I'd be insulted if I have been. But at least they give an explanation for how they get CO2 pleasant from this.
Some day soon, I promise, we'll have a chat about ions and anions however I suppose I may also have exhausted you guys by using now.
Part of me admires the gall of those humans to make the claims they do and fee what they do for this vain rubbish. A larger part of me is appalled at how this kind of recent-agey clap trap can be lapped up so with no trouble by means 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.