Activated Carbon From Homemade Charcoal

Activated carbon is “activated” when its surface area is increased by physical and chemical processes. The most popular uses for activated carbon are water filtration, and treatment for acute poisoning. It reacts with various substances by binding them to its surface, so the greater the surface area, the more effective it is. Imagine you’re painting a sphere made of solid wood. The amount of paint you need depends on the amount of surface area on the sphere. But now imagine you’ve drilled hundreds of holes into the sphere — now you’ll need a lot more paint.

Carbon works the same way. If you’re filtering city water to remove the chlorine, the chlorine molecules are “adsorbed” to the surface of the carbon, and once the surface is covered with chlorine, it won’t filter anymore. But if you can “activate” the carbon to increase its surface area, it will remove much more chlorine from the water, and do it much faster.

Activated Carbon Process

First, understand that this is not a rigorous process in a controlled environment. If you need activated carbon, buy it. But if you can’t buy and you need activated carbon, this method will get you a batch that is moderately effective for water filtration or poison treatment.

  1. Make charcoal. You get your carbon from charcoal, and the main problem with activating it at home is the temperature at which you make the charcoal from wood. It needs to be cooked between 900 and 1400 degrees Farenheit, and it’s difficult to reach and control those temperatures in the back yard. When we made charcoal (read this article), it was questionable whether we reached those temperatures, but if you can do it, by all means go for it.
  2. Powder the charcoal. I know that pea-sized chunks are easier to handle, but because this backyard activation process is not 100% effective, you need the smallest pieces charcoal you can get, so go ahead and powder it.
  3. Make a 25% solution (by weight) of calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is widely available and generally considered non-toxic, so it’s safe to handle. To make a 25% solution, weigh 3 parts of water and mix in 1 part calcium chloride. For example, dissolve 100 grams of calcium chloride in 300 grams (same as 300 mL) of water.
  4. Make a paste with the calcium chloride solution and your powdered charcoal. Watch the video to get an idea of how much solution to use, and how thick the paste should be.
  5. Spread the paste to dry.
  6. Rinse with clean water.
  7. Bake at 225 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Notes and Tips

  • When you dissolve the calcium chloride, the water will get hot enough to scorch, so be careful!
  • The finer your carbon, the finer your filter must be when you rinse it. The powdered carbon is so fine some will even go through a coffee filter. You’ll lose a little, but you’ll still have a usable amount left, so go ahead.
  • Whatever filter you use, make sure it’s clean, but that it hasn’t been washed with scented detergent or bleach, because these will react with your carbon and make it less effective.
  • Same goes for the water you use in the rinse — it should be carbon-filtered, distilled, or reverse-osmosis filtered.

Further Reading:

Low-Tech Coconut Shell Activated Charcoal Production

Cheap way to make activated carbon

~ SnoMan

24 thoughts on “Activated Carbon From Homemade Charcoal”

  1. AbinadiOnTheWall

    I love this solution. Planning to make up a couple batches and do some testing. Follow-up question for you: how much water can I expect my DIY filtration system to purify? To be more specific, I’m planning to use a 55 gallon plastic drum (new, food grade), and planning to fill it 25% gravel, 25% activated charcoal, 40% sand. Also, this will be the second drum in the process (the first one will include a bleaching process). I plan to filter 60-80 gallons a day for my neighborhood. How many days might this work before the activated charcoal needs to be replaced?

    Yes, I’m planning to test the water regularly for effectiveness; just hoping for a heads up.

    1. AbinadiOnTheWal, I want to do this as well. I’ve written a book The Modern Pioneer, an Almanac of Natural Living (amazon) and am now writing the follow up, The Urban Pioneer. I want to create a rainbarrel system for city dwellers to be able to filter city water to use for gardens. Do you know HOW MUCH of the activated carbon you need to add to your barrel? Thanks, Lauren Sugar Hollow Farm http://www.shollowfarm.com

    2. I would only know how to answer that by testing the system. It depends on the quality of the incoming water supply.

  2. How much of the activated carbon is needed to filter say a rainbarrel full of water for gardening in the city? Also speaking of that, how do you get the city water clean enough to rinse the carbon ?

    1. Matthew Niedbala

      As you can see with a solution of 25% calcium chloride is HIGHLY soluble. Make sure you rinse it good and you’ll lose almost all of it. Anyways it is pretty safe. Chemicals are usually safe people fear monger over them.

  3. disqus_queenbee_1

    Royal Oaks charcoal is made from real wood, not ground up particles of God knows what that’s been activated with a ton of chemicals.It’d not pressed into molds or coated with additives to make it burn faster.

  4. This did not work for me. The final product is not comparable with the active carbon I bought in the shop. I think you do need the 1400 Farenheit.

  5. I like making it using the quenching method
    Fish a red hot piece of charcoal out of a fire and throw it in water
    Use clean wood and clean water you don’t need chemicals

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