CECA is the sole European producer of activated carbon which uses two activation processes on the same production site, and this allows us to adapt the product fully to our customers’ requirements.
* Chemical activation using phosphoric acid
This process uses phosphoric acid as activation catalyst to develop internal porosity. This type of activation promotes the increase of " adsorption macroporosity ", i.e. a very large decolorisation capacity. Compared with chemical activation using zinc chloride, phosphoric acid activation brings no heavy metal to the carbon.
* Physical activation using steam
The process uses water vapour at high temperature (up to 1000°C) to produce activated carbon featuring homogeneous porosity, with a slight predominance for "adsorption mesoporosity".
Steam activation produces carbon with an alkaline pH (9 to 11).
To optimise its pH, our steam activated carbon can be neutralised with acid and thereby maintained at between 4 and 6.
Activated carbons.
