Activated Carbon Supply and Pricing

Activated carbon, the universal adsorbent that is typically manufactured from raw materials such as coal, wood and coconut shell, has seen price and availability issues as never before in the past 18 months.

The United States has three large domestic manufacturers of activated carbon that use various grades of coal or wood for their raw material and for the last two decades activated carbon was also readily imported from China.

In 2007, in response to a petition filed by two domestic coal base manufacturers , the U.S. levied new anti-dumping duty fees on most activated carbon imported from China to the tune of 49 – 228% duty (average was 62%) in addition to the standard 4.8% duty for such products.  In addition, China’s demand for coal has been ever increasing due to hundreds of new power plants being built while at the same time, many coal mines were closed for safety and environmental reasons with the end result being a shortage and price increase of coal in China.  To add to the mix of forces that were combining in this perfect storm, China also eliminated the 13% VAT rebate that activated carbon exporters in China used to receive from their government.  Earlier this year, there have been China carbon price increases due to currency exchange rates as the dollar weakens.  Naturally, as China coal carbon prices have increase, the domestic manufacturers have followed suit.

The icing on the China coal carbon cake is the fact that most activated carbon plants in China will shut-down May 31st for approximately three months by government order in an effort to reduce air pollution for the Olympics.  This will certainly exacerbate the coal activated carbon supply and pricing situation.

According to a WSJ article from Feb 2008, the cost of coal in China has almost tripled in the past year and for the first time ever, last year China imported more coal than it exported.  Arch Coal in the U.S. has announced that it has signed a contract to supply coal to China, the first such contract of its kind.

The domestic activated carbon producers should not have a problem getting raw material, but they are at production capacity and the new capacity they have announced is mainly for powdered activated carbon for the looming mercury emission control market (mainly power plant flue gas) in the U.S.  As a result of anti-dumping duties and energy & labor costs and high domestic production levels, coal carbon pricing has risen dramatically in the past year.

ADVANTAGES OF COCNUT SHELL VS BITUMINOUS COAL ACTIVATED CARBON

By Robert Potwora

(The following is a summary of the presentation at WQA Aquatech USA 2008 in Las Vegas)

The two most common raw materials for producing activated carbon are coconut shell and bituminous coal.  The starting raw material to produce the activated carbon has a major impact upon the activated carbon’s characteristics.  Activated carbons produced from coconut shells have the most micropores.  Micropores are defined as pores less than 20 Angstroms (2nm) in diameter.  Activated carbons produced from bituminous coal have fewer micropores, but more mesopores.  Mesopores are defined as pores between 20 Angstroms (2nm) and 500 Angstroms (50nm).  The scanning electron micrographs (SEM) shown below were taken at 1000X magnification.  At this magnification the prevalence of the micropores can be seen in the coconut shell based activated carbon. 

The most common method to quantify the micropore volume is the ASTM Iodine Number test.  Table 1 below compares the iodine number and other key properties between coconut shell and bituminous coal based activated carbon.

TABLE 1

The higher micropore volume, which is reflected in the higher iodine number, in coconut shell activated carbons means they have much higher capacity to adsorb low molecular organics.  Higher capacity means the coconut shell based activated carbon will last longer before it needs to be changed-out.  Carbon adsorption isotherms were ran on coconut shell and bituminous coal based activated carbons to measure their capacity for volatile organic chemicals (VOC). 

TABLE 2 - BENZENE AT 10 PPB

Column 2 in table 2 summarizes the isotherm results for 10 ppb benzene in water.  The coconut shell had almost twice the capacity compared to bituminous coal based, 11 mg of benzene per gram of coconut carbon versus 6 for the coal based.  Column 3 in table 2 calculates the carbon usage (exhaustion) rate based upon this capacity at an influent of 10 ppb benzene.  0.0076 pounds of coconut shell activated carbon would be exhausted for every 1000 gallons of water treated versus 0.014 pounds of bituminous coal activated carbon.  The cost of the carbon exhausted per every 1000 gallons of water treated was then calculated in column 4 in table 2.  The cost of acid washed bituminous coal activated carbon and unwashed coconut shell activated carbon was used for this comparison.  Acid washed bituminous activated carbon was selected because as you can see in table 1, unwashed bituminous coal carbon has ash or impurity levels 3 times higher compared to unwashed coconut shell carbon.  Acid washed bituminous coal activated carbon has ash levels 2 times higher compared to unwashed coconut shell carbon.  In column 4 the treatment cost is almost 3 times higher with washed bituminous carbon compared to unwashed coconut shell carbon.  A significant cost savings with coconut shell carbon.

This same type of evaluation was done in Table 3 for 568 ppb MTBE in water. 

TABLE 3 – MTBE AT 568 PPB

Again the capacity of the coconut shell carbon was significantly higher.  This translates into a treatment cost 2.5 times higher with washed bituminous carbon compared to unwashed coconut shell carbon.

Another advantage of coconut shell carbon is its high hardness.  Table 1 compares the ASTM Hardness Number between the two types of carbon.  A higher hardness number means less particle attrition and less dust.  Coconut shell carbons require less water to rinse (backwash) a new bed and generate less fines during operation.

Coconut shell carbons are also more environmentally friendly or “Green”.  The coconut tree produces coconuts three times a year.  The tree is not killed to harvest the coconut shells.  Therefore it’s from a renewable resource.  It took millions of years for bituminous coal to be formed, a non-renewable resource.  In addition, part of the carbon dioxide produced during manufacturing the coconut shell carbon is removed by the coconut trees.

A lot has happened since our last edition of our Carbon Current newsletter six months ago.  One the most important, after delays, our JV plant in Mexico is  completed and the furnaces are heating up as we send this newsletter. The first phase of this plant will be producing two million pounds a year of the sabre series® commodity coconut shell products.  We will add another activation furnace in the next 6-12 months to double that capacity and eventually a third furnace to compliment the char activator design capacity of 6 million pounds a year.

In addition, we are marketing our sabre series® “C” products as a “green” product since the coconut shells are a renewable resource.  We are switching over some of our packaging to the color green to reflect this important aspect of us being environmentally responsible company.

In May of this year we announced the appointment of James P. McAliney to the Carbon Resources Board of Directors. Mr. McAliney has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience in the global markets of chemical engineering. In his tenure as Marketing Manager for Activated Carbon, he increased sales of activated carbon products and services through negotiation of multiyear, multimillion dollar contracts. As the Business Manager for North America, Polyamides, he structured and negotiated cooperative ventures to leverage worldwide marketing capabilities for the company. 

Mr. McAliney spent four years as the Global General Manager for Polyamides in Paris, France. During this time he oversaw marketing efforts and built a top-producing sales team. He is currently the General Manager/Project Director for Glass Coatings & Expoxides in Pennsylvania.

"Having worked in the activated carbon business for over 10 years, I am impressed with Carbon Resources' growth and product offering. The Carbon Resources team has a great deal of practical 'hands on' experience and technology expertise which explains their high double digit growth. Carbon Resources creativity and fast response, align them well for continued success in this rapidly changing industry. My 25 years of international business experience will assist them in defining a longer term plan for growth, both within the U.S. and worldwide. I am happy to be part of it," said James McAliney.

We have had a relationship with Jim McALiney for several years and his experience in creating business plans and strategies for fast-track growth companies and global market expansion is exactly what we need right now.  His international manufacturing and marketing knowledge is going to be an important advisory role for us.

In addition, we have finalized a joint marketing agreement with Molecular Products out of Colorado to market their Chemsorb®  bacteriostatic activated carbon that is impregnated with a patented antimicrobial agent that is effective against a wide spectrum of microorganisms, fungi, yeast and mold.  Unlike conventional silver impregnation carbons, this product has extremely low toxicity to human health and the environment and works without leaching into the filtered water not effecting the any of the surface area that could limit adsorption kinetics.  This product has passed NSF 42 testing for bacteriostasis as well as extractables and is priced much less than current silver impregnated carbons.

Sales of our Spartan Series® carbon continue to grow especially for the chloramine market.  Many customers prefer this over their previous supplier due to it’s cleanliness since it is produced from coconut shell versus coal base.  It also has a much higher surface area than our competition so in theory, it should be lasting longer.

In the first part of this year we have added our Sentry Series® line which is a line of specialty formed activated carbons such as poly impregnated, activated carbon fiber and granular “sandwiched” carbon that is tightly packed together between two scrim materials.  These products can be customized to various configurations or hole punched per customer needs.

Finally as we continue to grow, we continue to add special employees that add value to Carbon Resources.  Aubrey Childress joined our customer support/inside sales team in November and brings a great “anything is possible” attitude.  Please send her a welcome e-mail at Aubrey@carbonresources.com