Activated Carbon Dose Calculator

Work out activated carbon dose instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Activated Carbon Dose Calculator

Carbon requirement is the mass of contaminant to remove divided by the carbon's adsorption capacity at the equilibrium concentration, taken from a Freundlich isotherm. Capacity falls steeply as the target outlet concentration falls, so demanding very low residuals raises carbon use disproportionately.

Formulas

Carbon requirement

Carbon (kg/day) = flow x (inlet - outlet concentration) / adsorption capacity

Dose

Dose (mg/L) = carbon (kg/day) x 1000 / flow (m3/day)

Worked example

With the default values below, Activated Carbon Dose Calculator returns Activated Carbon Required of 18.0000. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Flow Rateminimum 0 m3/day: 10,000 m3/day
Inlet Concentrationminimum 0 microg/L: 50 microg/L
Target Outlet Concentrationminimum 0 microg/L: 5 microg/L
Carbon Adsorption Capacityminimum 0 mg per g carbon: 25 mg per g carbon

Results

Activated Carbon Required: 18.0000
Carbon Dose: 1.8000
Contaminant Removed: 0.450000
Removal Efficiency: 90.000%

Step by step

1Values used
2Carbon requirement
3Dose
4Activated Carbon Required= 18.0000
5Carbon Dose= 1.8000
6Contaminant Removed= 0.450000
7Removal Efficiency= 90.000

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 6 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does adsorption capacity come from?

From isotherm testing on the actual water, because natural organic matter competes for sites and can reduce capacity for the target compound by an order of magnitude compared with clean water.

Powdered or granular carbon?

Powdered carbon suits intermittent taste and odour episodes and is dosed and discarded. Granular carbon in fixed beds suits continuous duty and can be reactivated, giving lower cost per unit removed at high loading.