摘要：Although it has been known since antiquity that charcoal has adsorptive ability, it is used today mainly as a fuel. Charcoal produced from broad-leaf trees is well suited as fuel because of its high density, whereas charcoal produced from coniferous trees is not since it is extremely porous. The authors discovered however that charcoal produced from such conifers as Japanese cypress ( C. obtusa ) and Japanese cedar ( C. japonica ) has remarkable adsorption power superior to that of commercially available activated carbon. Particularly when it comes to adsorbing the small quantities of chloroform and trichloroethylene in tap water and ground water (which have recently become a health hazard), such charcoal is superior to the latest forms of fibrous activated carbon both in terms of adsorption capacity and adsorption rate. The supposition that the outstanding adsorption power of charcoal from coniferous trees is based on its pore structure was confirmed by means of studies on pore-size distribution and by scanning electron micrography.
