China's national standards classify activated carbon according to two parts: one according to the main raw materials used in manufacturing, and the other according to the raw materials used in manufacturing and the corresponding product shape combination.

Activated carbon according to the main raw materials used in manufacturing is divided into four categories: coal activated carbon, wood activated carbon, synthetic material activated carbon and other activated carbon. It is classified into 16 types according to the main raw materials used in manufacturing and the corresponding product shape combination. Among them, coal activated carbon is divided into: columnar coal granular activated carbon, crushed coal granular activated carbon, powdered coal granular activated carbon, spherical coal granular activated carbon. Wood granular activated carbon is divided into: columnar wood granular activated carbon, broken wood granular activated carbon, powdered wood granular activated carbon, spherical wood granular activated carbon. Synthetic material activated carbon is divided into: columnar synthetic material granular activated carbon, broken synthetic material granular activated carbon, powdered synthetic material granular activated carbon, forming activated carbon, spherical synthetic material granular activated carbon, cloth synthetic material activated carbon (carbon fiber cloth), felt synthetic material activated carbon (carbon fiber felt). Other activated carbon refers to the activated carbon prepared by other raw materials (such as coal pitch, petroleum coke, etc.) in addition to the above three types of activated carbon. This type of activated carbon is temporarily listed in the product shape classification, asphalt based microsphere activated carbon.

Naming rules

Activated carbon is named by material and shape. The naming method is based on the naming principle of the content, there are three layers of content: the first layer of activated carbon manufacturing main raw materials, with the first letter of the main raw materials in uppercase; The second layer represents the shape of activated carbon, which is represented by the first letter of the English word shape; The third layer is the name of the active carbon, which is composed of Chinese characters.

Raw material classification symbol

The classification symbol of activated carbon manufacturing raw materials named by the first letter of the material name in uppercase, if the first letter of the name is repeated, the suffix of the first letter in the English word is a lowercase English letter, the letter comes from the English word of the material name (consonant preference). Manufacturing raw material classification symbol, because the class belongs to the wood activated carbon processing raw materials more types, and a variety of wood raw materials manufacturing activated carbon performance has a certain difference, therefore, the wood activated carbon manufacturing raw materials subdivided into four categories: wood chips activated carbon, fruit shell activated carbon, coconut shell activated carbon, biomass activated carbon. The classification symbols of these four types of wood activated carbon are represented by the raw material classification symbol (W) and the specific raw materials (wood chips, fruit shells, coconut shells, biomass) in uppercase of the first letter of the English words with the bottom label. The classification symbols can be found in Chinese National Standard GB/T 32560-2016 "Classification and Naming of Activated Carbon" released in 2016.