The use of activated carbon to remove harmful impurities like volatile organic contaminants from water has been practiced since Roman times. Activated carbon is the generic term used to describe a family of carbonaceous adsorbents with a highly amorphous form and extensively developed internal pore structure that capture contaminants as they pass by. Activated carbon, by nature, is extremely porous with a very large surface area, which makes it an effective adsorbent material. This large surface area relative to the size of the actual carbon particle makes it easy to remove large amounts of impurities in a relatively small enclosed space.Coconut shell-based activated carbons are the least dusty. Predominantly microporous, they are well-suited for organic chemical adsorption. Coconut shell-based carbon has the highest hardness compared to other types of activated carbons, which makes it the ideal carbon for water purification. In terms of base materials, coconut shells are renewable resources and that is why we work with them at Epic Water Filters. Coconut plantations with millions of acres of land continue to provide all the benefits of green trees to our environment in spite of using billions of coconut shells per year for activation.Activated carbon is produced from coconut shells in a two-step process. The first step in activation is to carbonize the shells to drive about two-thirds of the volatile substances out of the shells, creating a carbonaceous mass full of tiny pores.In the second step, this carbonized base material is activated at high temperature (1,100°C/2,012°F) in steam. Activation temperature and the amount of activation time are important to create the internal pore networks and to impart certain surface characteristics inside each particle. In essence, the total activation process gives carbon its unique adsorption characteristics.