Activated Charcoal, coal or activated carbon are the terms to denote coal that has been made porous by the introduction of oxygen.
This type of coal is used on a large scale basis to absorb certain impurities and odours from gasses. Carbon based impurities also known as organic chemicals are easily trapped by activated coal. This filter of activated coal requires to be changed as soon as all bonding sites through which absorption occurs, are full.
Carbonaceous source materials such as peat, wood, coal, lignite, nutshells and petroleum pitch are usually used to produce activated carbon by processes of chemical activation or physical reactivation – carbonization or oxidation.
