Activated alumina is commonly used as a water filter to remove or reduce harmful contaminants like fluoride and arsenic from drinking water, or dry gas such as propane so that it can safely transfer without corrosion or leakage.
Desiccant agents are also widely employed to reduce moisture content in hydrocarbon-based liquids and gases that may result in costly downtime or equipment failure due to hydrate formation.
High Surface Area-to-Weight Ratio
Activated alumina’s extensive porous network offers it a high surface area-to-weight ratio and makes for effective adsorption, making it useful in gas and liquid applications such as fluoride removal from drinking water.
FEECO maintains a comprehensive lab for thermal and agglomeration testing of spherical activated alumina products at batch and pilot scale, featuring an automated continuous process loop incorporating thermal agglomeration testing for optimal material and production conditions testing.
Activated alumina has great adsorption properties that make it an effective desiccant, effectively eliminating moisture in air and other liquids. Perciò, activated alumina is often utilized as an air purification component to remove harmful gases and VOCs, improving indoor air quality for healthier living and working environments.
Activated alumina can serve as an efficient treatment system to remove fluoride from natural mineral waters. As its release of cations and anions from treatment is lower than the PTWI limit set for drinking water consumption, humans can safely drink from this source. Inoltre, regular regeneration under optimal conditions according to good manufacturing practice and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point principles ensures there is no chance for microbiological contamination of water supply sources.
High Crush Strength
Activated alumina is created through thermal treatment of bauxite in a rotary kiln, through which water that had become bound is removed by calcination, leaving behind highly porous aluminum oxide structures with pores designed to trap moisture, gases and impurities for regeneration purposes.
Activated alumina has superior crush strength compared to molecular sieves and can withstand the physical stresses associated with moving-bed applications, making it especially suitable for coal washing applications where desiccants made of activated alumina are used to extract excess salts and phosphorous from raw coal before it causes corrosion of downstream equipment.
Alumina desiccants boast an exceptional absorption capacity that helps lower initial costs and operating expenses by permitting smaller bed sizes or longer operating cycles. Attributes that contribute to this include its high surface area and pore distribution, low dust content and bactericidal properties – making activated alumina an ideal desiccant in liquid water-containing applications so as to minimize risks of microbiological contamination. The global activated alumina market is dominated by large-scale vendors that invest in extensive research and development efforts for creating eco-friendly products. Some major players include BASF SE, J.M. Huber Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd, Axens Porocel Dynamic Adsorbents Inc and KIN Filter Engineering Co. Limited – just to name a few!
Low Moisture Content
Activated alumina’s low moisture content makes it an effective desiccant in air drying applications, and its lack of chemical reactions make it safe to use in water treatment and other chemical applications. When handling activated alumina dust or powder, Tuttavia, appropriate protective equipment (DPI) such as goggles, face shield and gloves should always be worn; inhalation of its dust particles could result in respiratory issues if inhaled directly.
Activated alumina’s high surface area and porosity make it an ideal material for gas and vapour absorption, commonly used by natural gas and petrochemical industries to remove carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, and other trace impurities from gaseous streams, thus protecting against corrosion while improving product quality.
Once the adsorption capacity of an activated alumina has been exhausted, it must be regenerated. Lye or sulfuric acid may be used depending on its use and conditions for regeneration; to speed up this process many manufacturers recommend power ultrasound for dehydration of activated alumina to decrease regeneration time and energy costs.
Excellent Adsorption Capacity
Activated alumina features an extensive network of pores and channels that allows it to effectively absorb and retain large volumes of moisture, making it suitable for applications where large-scale moisture removal is necessary. Inoltre, its humidity-control properties enable it to perform effectively even under changing humidity conditions.
Calcination involves controlled heating of hydrated alumina to fracture along its weak planes of structural weakness, creating an air pocket structure with an average pore diameter of 4nm and surface area of 350,000m2/kg that has the ability to absorb many different chemicals.
Activated alumina has many uses beyond water absorption. It can remove fluoride, arsenic, selenium and degradation acids from transformer oil and lubricating oil while purifying gases and deodorizing liquids such as flammable and nonflammable solvents. Inoltre, activated alumina’s exceptional thermal stability allows it to withstand high temperatures without significant degradation; for this reason it’s essential that compatibility testing be conducted prior to its use for specific applications – and FEECO Innovation Center offers this capability as it conducts thermal and agglomeration tests at batch, pilot and continuous process loop capacities allowing proper decision-making when selecting activated alumina products.
Environmentally Friendly
Due to its unique adsorption properties, carbon nanotubes (CNT) provide an effective means of filtering contaminants out of water and air sources, mitigating environmental pollution. CNT is also widely utilized as an effective dehumidification solution, protecting equipment against corrosion in natural gas processing facilities and petrochemical processing plants.
Pharmaceutical packaging uses activated alumina to preserve and ensure the potency and integrity of medications by creating moisture-free environments, which is vitally important considering some drugs are sensitive to humidity and could lose efficacy or shorten shelf life if exposed.
Industrial gas purification applications also utilize activated carbon filters, where it adsorbs acidic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide to improve product quality and reduce environmental emissions.