Environmental protection drives the growth of the activated carbon market, and the industry has broad prospects for development

Activated carbon is prepared from carbon-containing raw materials such as wood, coal and petroleum coke through pyrolysis and activation processing. It has a developed pore structure, a large specific surface area and rich surface chemical groups, and has strong specific adsorption capacity. A general term for carbon materials. The function of activated carbon is to adsorb harmful gases, filter out insoluble impurities, and adsorb some soluble impurities. It is widely used in industries, households, and other scenarios.

Activated carbon is classified according to appearance shape into powdered activated carbon, granular activated carbon, cylindrical activated carbon, spherical activated carbon, activated carbon fiber, activated carbon fiber blanket, activated carbon cloth, honeycomb activated carbon, activated carbon plate, etc. Among them, granular activated carbon is the most traditional and most widely used product form. However, compared with granular activated carbon, powdered activated carbon has a relatively small particle size and a large surface area to volume ratio, and has the advantages of faster adsorption and more adsorption. It has the advantages of full capacity utilization, so it is usually added directly to process equipment, such as rapid mixing tanks, clarifiers and gravity filters. In recent years, powdered activated carbon has been the fastest growing segment in the activated carbon market.

Activated carbon can be divided into activated carbon for solvent recovery, activated carbon for water purification, activated carbon for air purification, activated carbon for desulfurization, fine desulfurization activated carbon, granular activated carbon for protection according to its use. According to the environment, it can be divided into liquid activated carbon and gas activated carbon. and others. Among them, liquid activated carbon is widely used in drinking water treatment, sewage treatment, organic solvent recovery, precious metal (gold) recovery, chemical and pharmaceutical wastewater treatment and other fields.

In terms of water treatment and organic solvent recovery, activated carbon has strong adsorption capacity and affinity for a variety of organic substances and chlorine. It can remove chlorine and organic compounds from drinking water and sewage, and activated carbon can also remove odors from sewage. In the pharmaceutical field, activated carbon’s powerful adsorption capacity makes it an ideal agent for binding toxins in the gastrointestinal tract (poisoning and diarrhea) and blood (dialysis) and removing them from the body. It can also be used to remove the color of raw materials or pharmaceutical products. . In the electronics and mining industries, activated carbon is used in supercapacitors and hard drives in the electronics industry and in metal recycling in the mining industry.

Industrial Research Center released “China Activated Carbon 2021-2026” Industry Market In-Depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report shows that in recent years, as countries and regions around the world have become increasingly protective of the environment, air management and sewage treatment standards have become increasingly demanding. The higher the level, the stronger the supervision, and the global demand for activated carbon products is increasing rapidly. In 2020, the global activated carbon industry market size has exceeded 35 billion yuan. Among them, the demand for activated carbon in the Asia-Pacific region, represented by China, Japan, India, Indonesia, and South Korea, has reached about 40% of the total global demand, making it the largest demand for activated carbon products in the world. market, and the demand for activated carbon in the European and American markets is also growing.

In the future, it is expected that as the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic gradually subsides, global economic development will gradually return to normal, people’s living standards will further improve, residents’ environmental awareness will continue to increase, and the environmental protection policies of various countries and regions will become further stricter. Activated carbon will be used as a As an irreplaceable adsorption material, its application fields and demand will continue to expand and grow. Driven by the many factors mentioned above, the global demand for activated carbon products is expected to continue to maintain a rapid growth rate. It is expected that the global activated carbon market will reach about 60 billion yuan in 2026, and the industry has broad development prospects.