Today is World Water Day 2022, the annual United Nations Observance that has been running for nearly 30 years, raising awareness of the importance of clean, safe drinking water and the many millions of people around the world without easy access to this essential commodity. The theme of this year’s event is Groundwater, the underground source of the majority of the fresh water used for human consumption.
Activated carbon is often used in the purification of drinking water, usually as part of a multi-stage filtration process, to remove particular contaminants from drinking water supplies and to leave a liquid that is free from colour, odour and unwanted taste. Indeed, the treatment of drinking water has, for many decades, been the single largest application sector for the activated carbon industry, and we work side-by-side with the water sector to investigate new and emerging contaminants (such as pesticides, herbicides and PFOA/PFOS) and help them identify the optimum treatment solutions.
Once the activated carbon is ‘spent’ and needs replacement, it can be easily and economically recycled via a process called thermal reactivation, and we operate a dedicated facility in the UK to treat spent carbons from the water utility industry.
For more information on the use of activated carbon for water treatment, please get in touch with our expert team.