Charcol.... & Carbon Help!

[Jack04]

Greetings, I am no expert, nor am i just looking for stupid ways to cut corners with a reef.

a couple weeks ago i was camping and used charcol with a grill...
i have a gas grill at home and so i am usually not in contact with charcol,
I was thinking... Could we use regular charcol in our filters... what is the difference between the expensive stuff we buy and the cheep grill charbon?

 

[marduc]

I can't give you a definitive answer, but for starters surface area.. big briquets are not going to have near the surface area as the smaller pelletized carbon we use.

I suspect the biggest issue is purity concerns though.. charcoal is made without much control since it is intended to just be burned off, as such it will be mostly carbon, but the manufacturers would not be all too concerned about making sure it was pure carbon since it is just going to go up in smoke. Then again you also have the problem of other chemicals and agents potentially being added to the charcoal so that it burns better.

 

[WaterKeeper]

The key work here is Activated. Kingsford has no reason to heat their briquettes to 900°F, under high pressure steam. Therefore, it has only a tiny fraction of the pore structure that makes it true activated carbon. It is somewhat like plain rice compared to Rice Crispy's. Save the charcoal for the grill although you can throw old Activated carbon on the fire if you wish.

 

[Jack04]

hey thanks! I have always herd of activated, and did not really know what that meant... so all i really have to do is smash it up into bits with a hammer, and buy a large pressure cooker to heat treat it with steam! piece of cake!

Thanks guys,

I'll stick to activated carbon!

 

[WaterKeeper]

:lol:

Don't forget the sulfuric acid if you want low ash acid washed.