PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY AND FILTERING PROPERTIES OF CARBON BLOCK CARTRIDGES

In the present paper, the information on the influence of various factors on the carbon block cartridges production technology and their potential impact on the properties of the finished product is presented. The possibilities of increasing the sorption-filtering efficiency of carbon block cartridges are presented. The technical and exploitation characteristics are influenced by the size of the mixture components granules, the physicochemical properties of active carbon and binder polymers, their ratio in the mixture, and the addition of bactericidal additives into the composition. The study of this topic is relevant, as evidenced by the analysis of the increasing number of publications on this matter over the past ten years. However, the production technology of carbon block cartridges is the know-how of manufacturing companies. This information is confirmed by the analysis of the technical characteristics of sixty carbon block cartridges from nine world manufacturers, whose products are WQA certified according to the NSF/ANSI 42 standard. The recommendations given by a number of authors on the size of activated carbon granules in the range from 40 to 120 mesh and polyethylene particles from 80 to 160 mesh with a flow rate of 1.4-3 g/10 min, can be taken as "reference points" in the development of extrusion mixtures with different components ratio. The following factors play an important role in obtaining effective cartridges: the quality of pre-extrusion mixing of the composition, its resistance to delamination during the “transition” from the mixer to the extruder loading zone, extrusion temperature regimes by zones, product cooling temperature, backpressure on the billet leaving the extruder. The information given in this article will be useful when producing new carbon block cartridges, improving the parameters of existing technologies, as well as in the research development of cartridges with new properties.