Activated carbon is a traditional and modern man-made material, also known as activated carbon. In the past 100 years since its introduction, the application fields of activated carbon have been expanding day by day, and the number of applications has been increasing. Looking back at the history of the application of charcoal, the records are as follows:
(1) In 1550 BC, Egypt recorded its use as a medical device;
(2) From 460 to 359 BC, Greece Doctor Hippocrate was used to treat epilepsy;
(3) From 1518 to 1593, Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica mentioned its use in treating diseases
(4) It was used externally in 1993 In ulcers;
(5) In 1794, a sugar factory in England was used for decolorization.
The above examples all use charcoal, not activated carbon.
Activated carbon, as a man-made material, was invented in 1900 and 1901. The inventor, Raphael von Ostrejko, obtained British patent B.P.14224 (1900); British patent B.P.18040 (1900) and German patent Ger.P .136792(1901).
He invented the method of carbonizing plant-source raw materials with metal chlorides or reacting carbon dioxide or water vapor with carbonized materials to produce activated carbon. It was first used in industrial production in a factory near Vienna in 1911. At that time, the product was powdered activated carbon with the trade name Epomit; in the same year, Norit was launched in the Netherlands; in 1912, Carboraffin was sold in Czechoslovakia. (Ger. Pat. 290656).
Looking back on the history of activated carbon application in the world over the past century, it may be roughly divided into three stages:
(1) The first stage, from the early 20th century to about the 1920s, was the germination Stages:
(2) The second stage, from about the mid-1920s to the mid-term growth stage;
(3) The third stage, from the mid-20th century to the end of the 20th century The first stage is the development stage, and it develops into the stage of large-scale environmental protection application.
These three stages can be attributed to two historic events in the application process of activated carbon. as a dividing line.
The first big thing was the use of activated carbon gas masks in World War I in the 1920s. It can be used as the boundary between the first and second stages of activated carbon application history.
The main application of activated carbon in the early stage was that powdered carbon gradually replaced the original bone char in the sugar industry. The particles, which emerged during World War I in the 1920s, were used extensively in gas masks. This is a glorious page in the history of industrial chemistry. At that time, Norit in the Netherlands and manufacturers and wholesalers from Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Switzerland and other countries established a joint company, indicating that the activated carbon budding in Europe was also a widely optimistic emerging industry.
Driven by the application of gas masks, the history of activated carbon has entered the second stage. The activated carbon market continues to expand. The adsorption and catalytic functions of activated carbon have been continuously developed in the refining, recycling, and synthesis of many industries. The United States, etc. Activated carbon plants have been opened one after another. Activated carbon, which continued to expand its application areas in the mid-20th century, was regarded as a "universal adsorbent".
The second major event is the deodorization effect of activated carbon. In the 1940s, hundreds of water plants used activated carbon for deodorization. This serves as the boundary between the second and third stages of activated carbon application history.
In 1927, a stench accident in tap water occurred at the Chicago Waterworks in the United States, which was unacceptable to the majority of residents. This was due to the odor generated by the phenol in the raw water and the chlorine used for disinfection. Similar accidents have also occurred in water plants in Germany and other places, and these accidents were all solved with activated carbon.
Since then, as environmental protection has received increasing attention, government regulations have become increasingly strict. The usage of activated carbon has increased dramatically not only in water purification, but also in gas purification and other aspects. In the second half of the 20th century, the environmental protection industry became a major user of activated carbon. As a result, the history of activated carbon has entered the third stage, that is, the development stage.
The application history of activated carbon in my country can be divided into three stages.
(1) In the first stage, before the 1940s, my country's pharmaceutical and chemical industries used a large amount of activated carbon, all of which were imported, such as Carboraffin brand activated carbon.
(2) The second stage began in the early 1950s when domestic activated carbon was put on the market. In 1951, the single-tube furnace factories in Shenyang and Fushun, the reverberatory furnace smoldering method factory in Qingdao, the excellent electrothermal activation method factory, and then the zinc chloride activation method factory were established. In 1958, Fujian, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Yantai, Northeast China and other places Factories were built one after another. In 1966, Taiyuan opened a Slep activation method factory. Subsequently, hundreds of Slep furnace factories were opened in my country. In addition, there are many factories such as converters and cake furnaces. The total production capacity soared from 30 to 50 tons in 1951 to nearly 100,000 tons in the 1980s.
Production and application promote each other, and the application scope of activated carbon is rapidly expanded. From the original single general-purpose carbon to a variety of special carbons, such as water purification carbon, sugar carbon, monosodium glutamate carbon, oil carbon, gold carbon, carrier carbon, medicinal carbon, injection carbon, reagent carbon, etc., it shows that activated carbon is widely used in domestic The economy is booming and the application volume is increasing rapidly, and the export volume is increasing due to the expansion of output and the reduction of production costs. The application of activated carbon in my country has not only developed in the domestic market, but also entered the international market.