Pharma industry to drive activated carbon growth, By Kirsty Barnes

The global demand for virgin activated carbon is tipped to rise five per cent per year to reach 1.2m metric tons by 2010, fuelled by increased use in the pharmaceutical sector.
Activated carbon, or charcoal, is used in pharmaceutical industry primarily as an adsorbent to remove pollutants during the drug manufacturing process.
The Asia/Pacific region presents the greatest opportunity for growth, where this market is expected to nearly double by 2010, led by China, which is expected to increase its share of the global activated carbon market to 13 per cent, according to a report by market research firm The Freedonia Group.
Smaller emerging markets, including Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Africa/Middle East region, will also record above average gains.
"In these developing markets, gains will be driven in all sectors by increasing economic growth and industrial output," said the report, titled 'World Activated Carbon.'
"Growing environmental concerns in these regions will also spur new growth in applications such as water treatment, flue gas treatment and hazardous waste remediation," said the report.
While growth rates in the most mature carbon markets of North America, Western Europe and Japan are expected to slow down, they will still continue to account for over half of carbon demand and in these markets in particular, activated carbon use in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors offers the strongest growth prospects.
Meanwhile, granular activated and specialty grade carbon products are poised to erode the current dominance of powdered activated carbon in the market.
"Many of the market niches that show the most promise - such as catalysts, gas separation and storage, and air pollution control - tend to prefer granular or specialty grades," said the report.
Furthermore, the advantage of granular material lies in its ability to be regenerated - this will allow it to gradually penetrate the water treatment and sugar processing markets, currently the largest consumers of powdered carbon.

Carbon Resources - New Letter

At its first exhibition, the newly designed tradeshow booth for Carbon Resources won the “IMPACT” award for its originality and effectiveness of design at the CA/NV American Water Works Association conference and exhibition held in Las Vegas. This booth will be displayed at next months AWWA conference in Seattle.

In November we will be exhibiting at the Water Quality Technology Conference and Exposition in Seattle from November 15th-19th. Robert Potwora, Technical Director, will be attending his first meeting as a voting member on the AWWA Standards Committee on Activated Carbon.

Carbon Resources employees are volunteering at the 7th Annual Beer Festival held at GreenFlash Brewery, Vista, CA to benefit the Fight ALD charity on November 14th. Fight ALD was started by Janis Sherwood who lost her 8-year old son to this disease in September of 2003. ALD stands for adrenoleukodystrophy and was popularized by the 1992 movie “Lorenzo’s Oil”. This deadly disease leaves the body unable to breakdown big fat molecules which eventually build up and clog nerve cells associated with the brain and spinal cord. Sonia Hollingsworth, Aubrey Schaeffer and Ann Harding will be the dedicated volunteers at this function.

In October, Kimberly Walsh volunteered at the “Brittany’s Blessings” event sponsored by Kiwanis Club of Fountain Valley, CA. This event takes about 30 children who were picked for economical needs through various organizations such as Boys and Girls Club and are taken to Wal-Mart to spend $125 each on school clothes twice a year. The day is dedicated to the memory of Brittany Daniels who is the daughter of Rita Daniels who passed away at age four by a rare aggressive form of strep.

CA/NV AWWA

For the first time, Carbon Resources will be exhibiting at the CA/NV American Water Works Association Tradeshow held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas from October 5th to October 8th. We will also be exhibiting at the Pacific Water Quality Association conference in Palm Springs, CA on October 13-16th. Ken Schaeffer will be giving a presentation titled "Comparison of Coal versus Coconut shell carbon for the POU/POE Water Treatment Industry". This will be of particular interest due to recent arsenic issues with Prop 65.

In addition, the ASTM D-28 committee that governs activated carbon manufacturing protocols will be meeting in Atlanta on October 21st and Robert Potwora who is Vice-Chairman of this committee will be attending. Robert will also be attending the 24th Annual International Activated Carbon Conference in Pittsburg, PA from October 6th through October 8th.

Powdered activated carbon (PAC)

Traditionally, active carbons are made in particular form as powders or fine granules less than 1.0 mm in size with an average diameter between .15 and .25 mm. Thus they present a large surface to volume ratio with a small diffusion distance. PAC is made up of crushed or ground carbon particles, 95–100% of which will pass through a designated mesh sieve or sieve. Granular activated carbon is defined as the activated carbon being retained on a 50-mesh sieve (0.297 mm) and PAC material as finer material, while ASTM classifies particle sizes corresponding to an 80-mesh sieve (0.177 mm) and smaller as PAC. PAC is not commonly used in a dedicated vessel, owing to the high headloss that would occur. PAC is generally added directly to other process units, such as raw water intakes, rapid mix basins, clarifiers, and gravity filters.