Activated Carbon Market

The global activated carbon market is expected to witness significant growth and register a CAGR of 8.14% during the forecast period, 2018 to 2023. The prominent factors favoring the growth of the global market are stringent environmental and governmental regulations to curb mercury emissions and growing demand for the product in water treatment applications, such as drinking water, groundwater, industrial effluents, and service water. However, volatile raw material prices and supply–demand gap are factors likely to impact the growth of the global activated carbon market during the assessment period. Nevertheless, the increasing popularity of the product in smart electronics and electric vehicles is expected to create lucrative opportunities for the manufacturers operating in the global market.

Mercury pollution is one of the major global crises today, due to the increasing emission of mercury from coal-fired power plants, cement-kilns, municipal and hospital waste incinerators, and other industrial sources. Coal-fired power plants are the prime source that emits mercury into the environment. These emissions contain elemental mercury (HgO), which resides for a long time in the atmosphere varying from 0.5 to 2 years and impacts the aquatic ecosystem if disposed of in lakes or streams. Considering the environmental impact, strict regulations are imposed by the governments of developed countries to control Hg emissions. For instance, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) and the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) regulations for reducing the hazardous air pollutants (Hg) from electricity generating units and industrial boilers. The Industrial Emissions Directive published by the Council of the European Union (EU) is another regulation pertaining to the mercury emissions in the EU. This regulation is aimed at reducing the volume of allowable emissions of mercury and sulfur oxide (Sox) gases from industrial boilers. Furthermore, there have been traces of elemental mercury in natural gas, which leads to corrosion of aluminum alloy in cryogenic exchangers and subsequently lead to an equipment failure. From both worker safety and environmental perspectives, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set exposure regulations for inorganic mercury compounds and is also regulated by the Clean Air Act Amendments. As a result, various mercury control technologies have gained importance over the years, of which the activated carbon system is widely used commercial air pollution control process. The growing awareness regarding environmental safety and implementation of strict emission guidelines have led to increasing demand for pollutant control systems, and this trend is expected to continue in the following years, on account of the rising energy demand.

Activated carbon is used to control and remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxin-furan, and heavy metals from industrial and commercial processes. Activated carbon is an excellent adsorbent and has a high specific surface area, which is best applicable for controlling mercury emissions. The activated carbon with high surface area, porosity, and low cost is primarily important for removing mercury from flue gases. Air filtration systems manufactured using activated carbon, which are based on agricultural wastes such as corn cob, coconut shell, palm oil waste, and other bio-based waste, are cost-effective and efficient to adsorb mercury from the flue gas emissions. The increasing use of biomass activated carbon for adsorption of mercury is likely to drive the growth of the global activated carbon market during the forecast period.

Supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries are the two promising energy storage solutions for future applications such as portable electronic devices, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and uninterrupted power systems (UPS). To meet the growing demand for energy and lower environmental pollution and resource depletion, high-performance, low-cost, and environmentally friendly energy storage systems are needed to be developed. The carbon-based materials are gaining popularity in various energy-related applications as they are easy to process, available in abundance, have chemical and thermal stability, and it is possible to modify their structural and textural properties to use in desired applications. Activated carbons are prominent carbon materials for these applications due to their large surface area and high pore volume and relatively low cost. In coming years, activated carbon is estimated to be increasingly used in the manufacturing of supercapacitors and for hydrogen storage. Currently, the use of activated carbons in the energy storage applications is nominal, for instance, in asymmetric batteries, ultracapacitors, and other advanced batteries, due to its high surface area and comparatively high conductivity of the material. The electrical double-layer capacitor (EDLC) or ultracapacitor is one such device with widespread use in electronic equipment such as laptops, hybrid and electric vehicles, and windmills.

The demand for electric vehicles has increased in recent years, which is attributed to the growing sentiments in favor of environmental concerns on the part of consumers as well as manufacturers. The development of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) is a major breakthrough in the automotive industry. This is expected to boost both the demand for and production of electric vehicles in the near future. The international conventions and conferences such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol, and the Paris Agreement are laying down binding regulations to limit the pollution across the globe. This regulatory trend is expected to continue in the future and is likely to fuel e-mobility to reach up to 30% of the global automotive production. This is likely to boost the demand for ultracapacitors and rechargeable batteries and thus activated carbon in the near future.

The key raw materials for producing activated carbon are coal, coconut shell, and wood. In recent years, the cost of these materials has significantly increased, which has affected the overall cost of the product. The growth of the global activated carbon market is expected to be mainly affected by the fluctuations in raw material prices. The supply–demand gap for coconut shell has led to a price hike. For instance, in August 2018, shortage of coconut-based charcoal supply leading to price escalations had a negative impact on the earnings of the Haycarb PLC, a coconut-shell-based activated carbon manufacturer. Similarly, in September 2018, Cabot Corporation announced the price hike for activated carbon globally due to the rising raw material costs. These untimely variations in the coconut-shell prices are expected to impact the prices of raw materials (charcoal), which is likely to hinder the growth of the global market in the coming years.