Activated carbon specifications can look like alphabet soup: GAC, PAC, CTC, iodine number, ball pan hardness. Yet three numbers decide whether a carbon will work in your plant. Here is the practical version we walk Dubai buyers through before they order.

Iodine number: the capacity headline

The iodine number approximates internal surface area, in milligrams of iodine adsorbed per gram of carbon. Municipal and industrial water treatment carbons commonly run 500 to 1,100 mg/g. Gold recovery duty is stricter: carbon in leach and carbon in pulp circuits target 1,000 to 1,200 mg/g, almost always from coconut shell, which dominates the industry with more than 9 in 10 gold operations using it.

Hardness: the number that saves money

In a CIL tank the carbon is stirred, pumped and screened continuously. Soft carbon abrades into fines, and fines are lost gold and lost carbon. That is why gold plants specify ball pan hardness of 97 to 98 percent minimum. Coconut shell carbon wins here too; coal based carbons are usually softer and better kept for fixed bed water duty where attrition is low.

Mesh size: flow versus kinetics

Granular carbon sizes are quoted as mesh ranges. The gold industry standard is 6x12 mesh, roughly 1.7 to 3.35 mm, balancing adsorption speed against screen retention; 8x16 is the common alternative where finer screening exists. Water treatment beds often use 8x30 or 12x40 for better kinetics at acceptable pressure drop. Powdered activated carbon, 200 to 325 mesh, is dosed and filtered out rather than held in a bed, and suits short contact polishing duties.

Base material in one line each

Coconut shell: highest hardness and microporosity, the default for gold and for polishing low molecular weight organics. Coal based: balanced pore structure, economical for large water beds. Wood based: high mesoporosity, strong for decolourisation, usually as PAC.

Ordering from Dubai

Specify duty, iodine number, hardness, mesh and packing, then insist on a certificate of analysis per lot. Pre shipment samples are worth the few days for production trials. MENA Industrial Supplies stocks granular and powdered activated carbon in 25 kg bags and 500 kg big bags in Dubai, with COA documentation and GCC export support.