make your own activated charcoal

[Invader Zim]

"The very best activated charcoal (Iodine number 1200) is made by
passing
steam or CO2 over coconut shell charcoal at about 800C. That is probably

beyone your capability. However, you could make a tall verticlal kiln
from
a 30 gal drum, fill it with chacoal and light it at the bottom through a

one inch diameter hole. Control firing rate by partly plugging this
hole.
Put in a grate of expanded steel about 1 inch from the bottom. The
combustion of the bottom layer would create heat and CO2 which might
make a
good activated charcoal. Let the charcoal mass get to about 800 C
(bright
red heat) for about 1/2 hour. Then plug up the bottom air hole and
cool. "

Harry's suggestions are good too:

"My addition to your 30 gallon steel drum kiln would be internal
insulation. An inch or three of K-wool in an industrial situation. "

with his suggestion of water.

Here are my suggestions.

Take a 30 gal drum and put the holes like Tom suggested, make a hole on
the side right near the bottom of the drum so that a 1" metal pipe will
snugly slid through. Then take a 55 gal drum and make a hole about the
same size but a 3/4" higher from the bottom than you did with the 30 gal
drum. If you put the 30 gal drum down inside the 55, the two holes
would line up. Just for fun, go ahead and make sure that is the case.
If 3/4" is not right then figure the right amount necessary.

You are going to need two peices of steel screen approximately 18 1/2"
inches in diameter. Find 5 or 6 rocks, 1.5" to 2" in diameter. Space
them equally around in the bottom of the 30 gal drum. Lay one of your
screens down in the bottom. It will be supported by the rocks. The

hole you made in the side of the drum will now be below the screen. Now
put charcoal on top of the screen filling it up about 10 inches from the
screen. As this burns, it will be your heat source for activation.
Next you need about 20 feet of 3/8 copper tubing. At the top of the char
directly above the hole near the bottom of the drum, punch a hole in the
30 gal drum so that the copper tube will slid through, yes you guessed
it, snugly. Now you will also need to punch a hole in the 55gal drum the
same number of inches above its hole.
Again, if you put the 30 gal drum inside the 55, the holes would line
up. Lets go ahead and punch all the rest of these matching holes we
need. About 3" above that hole punch (or drill) a hole in the 30 gal
drum that a 1/2" steel pipe will fit through snugly. Just like before,
make a matching hole in the 55gal drum.

Next get two pieces of 1/4 steel rod 20" long, if you can't find steel
rod you can use coat hangers, it will just take more of them. With
steel rod, take a steel punch and use it to make a hole (just big enough
for the 1/4 rod to slide through) in the side of the 30 gal drum about
13" from the bottom. Make another hole in the 30 gal drum on the other
side exactly opposite of that one (180 degrees). Now slide the 1/4 rod
all the way through. It will leave a an inch or so hanging out on each
side.
Now make another hole 90 degrees around the drum and 1/4" higher. Make
your opposing hole again and slide the other rod through this hole.
This is your upper grate support. If you use coat hanger use 4 or more
coat hangers and make your holes with a nail. Bend the coat hangers
down on the outside of the drum so they can't be pulled back through.
They will likely have to be replaced every time you activated but they
are cheap.

Now go ahead and put the 30 gal drum down inside the 55. Insert a
10-11" long piece of 1" pipe with a valve on one end and the other end
open into the bottom holes lined up in the drums. Next take the copper
tubing leaving both ends open and roll the tubing into a spiral. If
you bought it new then it came in a coil. If so, take the center and
tighten up the center of the coil so it forms a spiral like the eye on
an electric stove. Now lay spiral down flat on top of the char and push
the outside end of the tubing out throught the hole and through the hole
that lines up on the 55 gal drum. Push out about 4 feet of tubing
outside the 55 gal drum. Inside the drum bend the end of the tube at the
center of the spiral up so that it points toward the top of the drum.
This will be your steam coil. The char shrinks down as it burns and the
copper coil will fall down with it so don't try to support it just let
the coil have plenty of free movement.

Now you need a water vessel. This can be any container that you can
stick a tube in the bottom and seal around it with bathroom caulk. It
needs to hold about 3 gallons. A 5 gallon container will be fine. Take
a 8 foot piece of rubber tubing, punch a hole in the bottom of the water
vessel and seal the tube in place with silicone caulk(or any good
sealant like aquarium sealer). Take the other end and hook it to a

valve (needle valve are best but even a old faucet valve will work).
After the sealant has dried, fill the vessel with 3 gallons and it up
about 6 feet off the ground. Now open the valve slowly and adjust
until it takes about 5 minutes for a quart to flow out. Leave the valve
in this position, it has now been set. Take a clamp or a pair of vice
grips and pinch off the rubber hose above the valve and fill the vessell
back to 3 gallons of water. Leave the top off otherwise you will create
a vacumn and the water will not flow. If you don't have a valve you can
use another clamp as your metering valve. Hook the open end of the
valve to the copper tube coming out the side of the 55 gal drum.

Now you might want to sprinkle a little kerosene or diesel fuel down on
the char next to the hole you made . This will help you light it.
Don't use gasoline. Its vapors could make a nasty explosion in a
confined space. Take the other screen and lay it down on your upper
screen support.

Now take a metal 5 gal container (see if you can get a stainless steel
one. Coconut oil "popcorn butter" for theaters, food contaoiners, use
stainless steel. Make sure you get the top so it will seal.) and make a
hole on the side near the bottom so 1/2" pipe will slid through snugly.
Take a 10 penny nail and make 1/8" holes equally spaced about every 2
inches around the bottom of the 5 gal container. Make another row two
inches up off set so that the holes are still the same distance apart.
Continue this process until your last set of holes are 2" inches from
top.Make sure the top is on the container and set it down in the drum on
the middle of the screen. You need a 12-14" 1/2" pipe with a valve on
one end and open on the other. Push the open end of the pipe through the
hole in the 55gal drum and on through the 30 gal drum, and into the 5
gal container as they should line up. Take some damp clay and push
around the pipe openings to seal it off. You are almost finished.
Fill around the 5 gal container with char but do not go above the top.
Now put the top on the 30 gal drum. The top needs to be sealed as tight
as you can make it. For a worse case, put some paper strips over the
edges and weight the top down with heavy rocks. The top should have a
2-3" opening. Leave this open. Now you need a stack. This can be an
piece of pipe 3 to 4 inches in diameter, 3-4 feet long that you can set
over the plug opening. Make sure it fits down flush on the top.

Finally , fill around between the 30 and 55 gal drums with char from
with one of your previous carbonization runs, as it makes a fairly good
insulator. The 30 gal drum may not last very long but it should give
you several batches.

First close the top valve. Lighting the unit requires pushing a small
piece of kerosene soaked cloth through the 1" pipe out inside the drum
under the screen and next pushing a hot coal through the pipe. Now use
a piece of tubing to blow air into the bottom chamber. As the char
begins to burn and produce smoke, give it a few minutes until the
exhaust is very hot. Next open the air valve mid way up the drums.
Wait for about 15 minutes then take off the clamp and let the water

flow. The bottom valve should stay open all the way until the water is
gone. Then close both valves. You should have been running since
ignition for about an hour and half to two hours. Fill the water vessel
completely full and open the valve all the way. You should get a big
cloud of steam coming out. Continue until no more visible steam is
escaping. Take off the stack and cool the top with water until it is
cool enough to remove, then soak the char around the 5 gal container
with water. It will not hurt it and it will insure that it doesn't
catch fire and you lose all your hard work.

After it has been soaked well, then you can take it out and let it dry.
Segregate it into top middle and bottom. To test each segment, take 15
ml of mineral oil in a small bottle put a thermometer in the mineral
oil, take 1 gram of your carbon dry in an oven for one hour then then
let it come to room temperature.Put it in the bottle with the oil and
shake gently. If the temperature rises two or three degrees you
probably have a 300-700 m2/g. 4-5,degrees, 700-1000m2/g. You will
probably get about 10 pounds of low to medium quality activated carbon.


originally found at - http://listserv.repp.org/pipermail/s...er/004660.html
all credit givin to whoever posted that message

[Beast]

Ok, now what do I do with it besides use it to filter my aquarium water?

[PsychoactiveMessiah]

you can use it in plant soil and in casing mixtures
I use it in the bottom of my terra cotta pots for drainage for my pedros and buttons. Its good stuff
thanks Zim, dont think Ill be making it since I can get it cheap at the local nursery but good info, never knew how they made it...

[doobydoobydoo]

Activated charcoal can remove something like 99.8% or 99.9% of bacteria, mold, and virus's from from the air as well as control odors from smoke, pets, or PLANTS.

cleans up impurities in some syntheses, or extractions, too...

[I_am_me]

I'll be making a homemade carbon scrubber with some.

[mushit]

One of my cousins ate a Destroying Angel. They pumped him full of activated charcoal orally and interveinously (sp) and he pulled through with no damage!! It was the first time they used this method.

[DJTetsu]

The most important use for MJ growers : to get rid of the stink !

Got some at the top of my grow room at my exhaust.

[Invader Zim]

yea it seems a bit difficult to do considering that most can get it for fairly cheap at hardware stores or nurseries and such...but for those who cant, those who want to, and those that are preparing for the appocalypse and want to know how to make there own scrubbers for there nuclear fall out shelters.
there ya go

[I_am_me]

I wonder if you could fart into a carbon scrubber and it would come out smelling just fine?

Sorry, my mind wonders.

That must be why my wife claims her shit don't stink.

Your wife is a poop scrubber?