What is Anthracite? Carbon? MMDF? GAC?

A client visited our office and ask me these questions:

1) What is Anthracite?
2) What is carbon?
3) Why use Anthracite in MMDF?
4) Why use GAC in carbon tank?
5) What is the difference of Anthracite from Carbon?

These are concerns that he wanted to figure out because he kept on buying these items and used for in his installations but he really don’t know the real essence of what he is doing.

In Marketing parlance, there is what we call as Monkey See, Monkey do technique. If people will see that a particular business is profitable then they will put up the same business. This is the common scenario in Shawrama, Tapsilog, Lugawan, Bilyaran, Nata de Coco and even water refilling stations.

If we are to co-relate this concept, my client before was a technician from a famous water company, but had already closed down, during those times, he was just instructed by his boss to do this, fix that, install this, repair that and so on and so fort.

Since the company has closed down, he has no more job, and in order for him to survive, he took the servicing of the refilling stations that were installed by their company before.

He was able to make good in his career that is why, right now, he is the owner of a small water company with an average monthly purchase of 300k from our company.

He is well versed when it comes to installation per se since it was the very nature of his work before, however, technically and theoretically speaking, he is unfamiliar with the true nature of the systems he is dealing with.

He was taught to do a certain work and he continued doing it up to now without really knowing what he is doing.

This is a common scenario in the water industry, people employed in one company will later put up their own business that is why competition is becoming stiffer and stiffer.

If we are to analyze my client, “Monkey See, Monkey Do principle” came in two forms, one is that, the experience that he had was now adapted for his own installation style, the second one is that, the concept of the business was copied.

My emphasis is about the adoption of previous experience to the present work that led him to ask me about Anthracite and Carbon issues.

Anthracite is a coal based media intended to remove particulates from the liquid being filtered. It has a depth filtration function that is why when loaded to the media tank, the said tank is called MMDF (Multi Media Depth Filter) that has the capacity of filtering particulates from its top layer up to its bottom layer. It should be noted that depth filtration process happens from the top to the bottom layer of the Anthracite and not from the gravel, pebbles and silica sand that are incorporated in the media tank, said items are just supporting bed to prevent the Anthracite from collapsing.

Granular Activated Carbon is either wood based or coconut based media that can remove foul taste, odor, color, chlorine and other substances that are carbon based derivatives. It should be noted that only contaminants that are caused by organic substance can be removed by the Granular Activated Carbon.

Removal of contaminants is based on the Principle of Adsorption (contaminants would adhere to the surface of the granular activated carbon) as per simplicity imagine the metal and the magnet. It is very important to consider the water that will be passing through the carbon should at least have minimal particulates so that it will not affect the adsorptive property of the Granular Activated, imagine a rubber placed in between the magnet and the metal. On the other hand, Granular Activated Carbon also has the depth filtration property, so it can also do the function of the Anthracite, however when this happens, granular activated carbon would loosen its adsorptive property easily and would retain its depth filtration property. In order to maintain the efficiency of its adsorptive property, then we have to filter out the particulates first by using the Anthracite so that the Granular Activated Carbon can concentrate on its adsorptive function.

In cases where in the MMDF tanks will be loaded with Granular Activated Carbon followed by the Carbon tank also loaded with Granular Activated Carbon is an acceptable concept here in the Philippines, however in countries where Granular activated carbon is far more expensive than Anthracite, then such concept is impractical.

Just sharing my thoughts about the concept.

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