Carbon Gives NORIT Americas Diamond Opportunity
Published Apr 25, 2008
One of the most important industries to spring from the oil fields is activated carbon.
It’s a product with literally hundreds of applications in dozens of industries, and all them engaged in one vital pursuit: purifying the products that they make.
Marshall-based NORIT Americas Inc. – a subsidiary of a Dutch conglomerate – is the industry giant in the region, using lignite coal to produce the carbon.
“We call it ‘nature’s sponge,’” says Don Saylor, director of sales and marketing for NORIT Americas.
“When you put steam and heat to it, it makes it very porous, with very tiny holes. You then get it in either powder or granular form, and use it to remove substrates” in various products.
Activated carbon is increasingly is used in carbon filters in cars to trap fumes. It can be used to purify foods or water or take certain unwanted flavors out of wines or foods. It is even used in sewage treatment plants.
Saylor says NORIT has 33 separate product markets alone. NORIT has plants throughout the world, but one of the biggest is in Marshall. That plant will increase by one-third beginning in 2009, Saylor says.
Demand, he says, is “driven in large part by the fact that the EPA has required that mercury be removed from coal-fired plants, and the best solution is to blow in lignite-based carbon. That market will at least double the North American carbon market over the next five to eight years.”
Story by Verne Gay
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