Medical air
Activated carbon filter
An activated carbon filter removes oil vapour, other hydrocarbons and odours from compressed air by adsorption on activated carbon; in Ultra Controlo air treatment, the activated carbon stage of the ULTRAMED unit reduces oil vapour and odours down to 0.003 mg/m³.
In the ULTRAK activated carbon towers, the oil vapours and other hydrocarbons are separated by adsorption as the air passes through a bed of activated carbon; the datasheet requires a coalescing filter upstream and recommends a 1 µm dust filter downstream, and the ULTRAMED unit places a coalescing filter before its activated carbon stage. NHS England's HTM 02-01 (2026) lists a carbon filter among the typical filters of a medical air dryer system, with a water filter or separator, an oil filter, two desiccant dryer columns, a dust filter and a bacteria filter. The 2020 WHO interim specification for PSA plants (superseded by WHO's technical specifications of 31 December 2024) listed a pre-filter, a coalescing filter and a coal filter (coal tower, alternatively an activated carbon filter), as applicable.
The ULTRAK datasheet gives a nominal residual oil vapour content below 0.003 mg/m³ and an ISO 8573-1 quality class for oils of 0/1, and the ULTRAOX 2022 datasheet includes a high efficiency activated carbon filter in the air treatment of ULTRAOX plants. See what an activated carbon tower does.
Sources
- ULTRAMED datasheet, p. 3
- ULTRAK datasheet, p. 2
- NHS England, HTM 02-01 Part A (2026), paragraph 7.64
- WHO, Technical specifications for PSA oxygen plants, interim guidance (8 June 2020)
- ULTRAOX datasheet 2022, p. 16
- WHO, Technical specifications for health facility based medical oxygen systems (31 December 2024), note on the oxygen generator plant specification (supersedes the 2020 interim PSA specifications)
Ultra Controlo figures come from its technical datasheets. Third-party facts were read at the source on the date shown.