How a Coconut becomes Activated Carbon

Turning Coconut into Charcoal

Another term for activated carbon is activated charcoal. Both of these terms refer to a charcoal material that has been reheated and oxidized (“activated”) to increase porousness. So, one of the necessary steps toward turning a coconut into activated carbon is to turn that coconut into charcoal.

How does one do that? With heat. Lots and lots of heat.
But it’s not enough to simply throw a coconut into the fire. Before heating the coconut, one must empty the coconut’s milk, scrape out the flesh, and ensure that the shell is clean and dry. The exterior part of the coconut will need to be cleaned of fibers, as well.

Pretreatment (Crushing, impurity removal, screening, selection)

Coconut shell itself contains many kinds of impurities such as earth, gravel, coconut silk, coconut hair and so on, and the size of coconut shell varies, so we need to crush, decontaminate and sieve the coconut shell into suitable materials (<10cm).

Drying Furnace System

If the moisture of the pre-treated material is high, we need to use the drum dryer for drying, the purpose of doing so is to reduce the pressure of the carbonization system at the back, and to improve the yield and production of the carbonized material.

If the moisture of raw material is less than 20%, no drying equipment is needed.

Carbonization Furnace Systems

After drying the material moisture is basically less than 10%, this time through the conveying system into the carbonization furnace for high temperature carbonization, this step is mainly to remove most of the volatile matter contained in the material itself, only a small part of the volatile matter reserved, there will be a large amount of smoke in the process of carbonization, this part of the smoke will be sent to the incinerator through the role of the induced draft fan to carry out high-temperature incineration, incineration after the smoke generated by the heat used for heating The heat generated from the incinerated flue gas is used to heat the steam boiler, and the remaining residual heat goes into the combustion chamber supporting the cylinder for incineration, which is also the heat source needed for the operation of the carbonization furnace.

The whole system has no additional heat source supply, which is the real meaning of heat recycling.

Activation Furnace System

The charcoal after carbonization is sent to the activation furnace by the conveying system for processing, the internal temperature of the furnace body is about 900-1000 ℃, at this time the charcoal in the high-temperature state will be the residual volatile components of the combustion off, the steam produced by the steam boiler will be transported by the steam pipeline to the interior of the activation furnace, the charcoal fully reacted with the charcoal, this step is also the crucial “pore-making This step is also the crucial “pore making”, and the steam generated during the activation process enters the heat storage room at the back for combustion.

The heat generated will also be used for the operation of the activation furnace, the activation furnace internal refractory bricks, which will play a very good thermal insulation effect, in order to ensure that the steam activation effect of the material, but also better guarantee the temperature of the furnace, and ultimately produce high-quality activated carbon.

Valued Process System (particle, powder)

After the activation furnace processing of activated carbon specifications are different, different sizes, at this time, you need to use the deep processing equipment for its depth processing, the different shapes of activated carbon for crushing, screening, de-emulsification, de-stoning, magnetic separation and so on, the specifications need to be done according to the requirements of the customer, when the activated carbon to complete this step, you can sell it to earn a corresponding profit.

If you are interested in our activated carbon equipment, we are very happy to provide you with relevant knowledge and equipment, looking forward to your inquiry.