Activated carbon air filters are a specific filtration technology that works by taking contaminants out of the indoor air of an environment that can alter the quality of the air in this confined space. The carbon technology has been a favored air purification technology due to its keen ability to attract pollutants, especially chemicals and odorous compounds onto the filter and thus removing from the air. This air filtration technology works through a specific filtration process that is known as “adsorption”, allowing the carbon media filter to both chemically and physically attract pollutants to the material to be obtained within the fiber media of the filter. However, when it comes to the use of an activated carbon air filter will it actually work to remove and neutralize these airborne pollutants completely from the environment or rather does it work to store pollutants onto a filter media which risks the potential for them to be re-released back into the air under certain conditions?

In this article we are going to learn more about what an activated carbon air filter is, how it works, and if it is the best solution to use to filter the indoor air of a personal indoor environment.

Can Carbon Filter the Air?

The process of how activated carbon air filters work is through “adsorption”, as the air flows through the activated carbon the pollutant contaminants will sorb to the surface of the activated carbon granules and thus be removed from the air that is pushed back out into the indoor environment. The granular activated carbon can treat a wide range of contaminant vapors from the air including chemical odors and other pollutants found traveling within the air. In most cases, the carbon filter is capable of capturing these various pollutants from the air because of the treatment the carbon has undergone to make it a larger surface area with a higher porosity.

According to the EPA, activated carbon filters are treated either through physical activation or chemical activation, with each of these using a different process that allows the carbon to acquire the capability to increase its surface area and allow it to be more porous to capture pollutants onto the media surface. Physical activation of carbon occurs when the source material is developed into activated carbon through the use of hot gasses, and then air is introduced to burn out the gasses to create a graded, screened, and de-dusted form of activated carbon. Chemical activation of carbon occurs when the carbon material is impregnated with certain chemicals like potassium permanganate to make the carbon surface larger to trap more pollutants than the average air filter.

What Does Activated Carbon Filter from the Air

The technology of activated carbon is integrated into air filters that are placed in both air handling systems and air purifiers to help steadily and efficiently remove pollutants that may be found in the indoor air of the environment. There are a variety of different types of air filtration technologies that are utilized today, and each of these technologies (whether its ozone, ionization, or HEPA filtration) all work in a specific way to attack certain pollutants from the indoor air. Activated carbon filters, however, are most commonly used to attack and capture gases from the air. The carbon is designed to filter the gaseous compounds through a bed of activated charcoal – which is usually used to combat VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the air.

In addition to carbon filter’s ability to capture gaseous compounds from the air, activated carbon will also help to absorb odors that may also be present in the indoor air space. Due to the activated carbon’s “adsorption” capability, this type of filter excels at capturing and retaining odorous compounds onto the activated filter media of the carbon. Odor removal is among one of the most popular uses of carbon air filters for most consumers and this is because of the efficiency in which these filters remove these odorous pollutants from the indoor air of an environment.

Activated Charcoal Dangers

Over the years, there have been many conflicting arguments on the effectiveness and the level of safety that activated charcoal filters create in your indoor environment. Although the method in which is used that allows activated charcoal or carbon to be adsorptive in nature, is also the very thing that can make activated charcoal dangerous when used in your personal indoor environment. The carbon’s ability to adsorb pollutants onto the filter media is a valuable filtration technique, however, as the activated charcoal filter continually captures and trap pollutants onto the media of the carbon it will begin to fill up on the filter. Activated carbon fills up by weight and once it reaches the point of excess on the filter media the carbon will work like a sponge and start to re-release the collected pollutants on its filter media back into the indoor air that it once collected the pollutants out of.

The re-releasing of pollutants back into the air can be a dangerous occurrence in your personal indoor environment, especially when you have air quality solutions like carbon filtration set in place in your air handling system or stand-alone air purifier(s). This introduction of pollutants back into your air can lead to compromised indoor air quality that can potentially impact the health of those occupants that spend a great deal of time in this indoor space. Therefore, activated charcoal filters may become dangerous if not properly monitored and changed as needed inside of your air handling system and/or air purifier, and due to the ambiguity of how long activated carbon last in an air filter this may be a scary reality for those homes using carbon air filters.

HEPA vs Carbon Air Filters

When it comes time to comparing air purifier technologies there are several popular options to choose from that most consumers often lean towards when purchasing a filtration technology for their indoor air. Carbon air filters are known to work at removing gaseous and odorous compounds from the air – with little particulate filtering provided from this air filter. Whereas in comparison, HEPA filters work specifically to remove and capture fine particulate matter from the air, as small as 0.3 microns in size at a 99.99 percent efficiency. Some air purifiers that can be purchased today work to combine these two filtration methods in one air purifier, to provide a broad-spectrum pollution filtration in the indoor air space. However, because of the carbon air filters inability to neutralize and completely remove the collected gaseous and odorous compounds, it makes other air purification options a more advanced, and effective option for cleaning the indoor air of your personal environment.

The EnviroKlenz Air Purifier is a revolutionary air purification device that combines advanced proprietary technology that works naturally to capture, contain, and neutralize a broad spectrum of noxious and toxic odors and chemical pollutants from the air, as well as a second stage hospital-grade HEPA filtration for fine particulate removal. Unlike carbon technology, the EnviroKlenz proprietary earth mineral technology works to actually break down and neutralize the chemical and odors rather than storing them on a filter media. Thus, EnviroKlenz provides a triple threat capability to remove and neutralize noxious odors and chemicals, while also filtering out fine particulate matter through the use of a hospital-grade HEPA filter.