The activated alumina market is highly concentrated, with only a handful of vendors holding significant market shares. They are investing heavily in research activities to develop eco-friendly products while expanding their product lines.
Water treatment is one of the primary applications for activated alumina, with growing populations demanding safe drinking water supplies. Water purification systems utilize activated alumina to remove contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic and fluoride from supply waters to ensure consumers receive pure drinking water supplies.
Water Treatment
When it comes to water purification, few materials can match activated alumina’s efficiency or versatility. With its impressive adsorption properties, activated alumina has proven capable of extracting many types of contaminants from liquids and gases such as fluoride, arsenic, selenium and chromium as well as other harmful pollutants from fluids and gases.
Activated alumina’s ability to selectively absorb impurities comes from its porous structure with an extensive surface area. Each pore serves as a microscopic terrain that captures molecules it comes into contact with, making this substance particularly suitable for purifying both air and water systems.
Attracting attention for both its water treatment capabilities and as an effective groundwater remediation agent, kaolin is also often utilized as an effective alternative to chemical reagents in groundwater remediation applications. Due to its ability to absorb arsenic and other contaminants from groundwater sources, kaolin allows safer disposal of toxic waste by decreasing concentration in surface waters.
FEECO’s Innovation Center boasts both thermal and agglomeration testing equipment, enabling our team of experts to devise the optimal activated alumina production process for you. We conduct batch, pilot scale and continuous process loop testing on desiccants made of both granular and spherical alumina desiccants as well as continuous loop process loop tests at pilot scale. Visit our website and discover more of how these unique testing facilities can maximize the returns from your investment in activated alumina.
Oil & Gas
Activated alumina plays an indispensable part in industrial processes requiring moisture removal from gases and liquids. At water treatment facilities, activated alumina serves as a powerful desiccant to regulate humidity levels and safeguard drinking water quality, while in oil & gas industries it protects equipment by eliminating moisture content in natural gas streams or hydrocarbon streams – two industries where activated alumina plays a crucial role in maintaining equipment longevity and avoiding corrosion issues.
Versatility allows this material to support operational efficiency across numerous industry settings. Its ability to absorb sulfur compounds like H2S helps companies meet stringent product specifications while simultaneously lowering harmful environmental emissions.
Activated alumina is an ideal adsorbent for high temperature and pressure applications due to its well-defined pore structure, which enables it to retain more of its adsorptive capacity at higher temperatures than silica gel adsorbents and provide greater resistance against abrasion than other adsorbents.
As the global population grapples with an increasing water scarcity crisis, investments in new water treatment plants and rising consumer demand for safe drinking water is driving growth of the activated alumina market. En outre, increased use of shale oil and gas activities is driving demand for H2S removal in natural gas processing environments as a means of maintaining product purity without investing in costly adsorption systems.
Pharmaceutical
Activated Alumina is one of the world’s foremost moisture removal and purification adsorbents, often utilized in pharmaceutical applications to absorb trace water, odors, acidic gases, air separation processes and fluorine treatment for H2O2. Composed of highly porous aluminum oxide particles with an enormous specific surface area, activated Alumina can be utilized both static and dynamic adsorption processes; particularly useful in pharmaceutical environments to trap trace amounts of moisture while neutralizing acid gases such as hydrogen peroxide or amperatured. It can also deep dry cracked gases, ethylene propylene as well as air separation/instrument air drying applications as well as fluorine treatment of H2O2.
In heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, activated alumina serves as an efficient desiccant to lower humidity levels and adsorb harmful airborne chemicals and allergens that contribute to mold and mildew growth. En outre, industrial air treatment processes employ activated alumina filters as part of their air treatment processes to capture pollutants such as sulfur compounds, carbon dioxide emissions, or organic substances and filter out any emissions into the environment that would reduce harmful environmental emissions.
Activated alumina’s high porosity and surface area make it the ideal material for absorbing moisture, contaminants, and impurities from gases and liquids. Its porous structure enables it to attract moisture while attenuating impurities from gas streams released during production – eliminating carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur compounds as a result – helping improve product purity while decreasing emissions into the environment. Activated alumina can also adsorb volatile substances present in liquids used during chemical manufacturing processes – an advantage over ceramic materials such as carbon material which cannot absorb such impurities from gases produced during manufacturing processes.
Chemical
Activated alumina can be utilized for the absorption of various chemicals, including arsenic and fluoride. When applied in water purification processes, activated alumina can remove anions that contribute to poor quality drinking water while improving its quality. En outre, activated alumina has proven itself capable of eliminating degradation acids from transformer oils and lubricant greases, while it has even been utilized to inhibit microorganism proliferation, thus prolonging their shelf lives.
Activated alumina is an ideal material for catalytic processes due to its highly reactive surface area and porosity; thus making it the perfect material to support catalysts used in oil refining, petrochemical manufacturing and chemical manufacturing industries, to increase their efficiency and stability.
Reactive carbons are also utilized in the dehydration process of natural gas to remove impurities and hydrates, helping prevent corrosion and freezing in pipelines. En outre, they serve a dual function of absorbing acidic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide from gas streams at natural gas plants, thus improving quality while decreasing environmental emissions.
Although activated alumina has many uses, it must be handled carefully to avoid being exposed to toxic fumes that could prove deadly if consumed or inhaled. Wearing personal protective equipment such as safety goggles or face shield, rubber gloves and dust mask or respirator is the best way of handling it safely as exposure could result in chemical burns or respiratory irritation if inhaled directly.