Motorcraft 2150 problem

[tgreese]

Not the whole picture. The charcoal has an affinity for the vapor, which you understand. This is the same effect you imagine in the fish tank - where dissolved nitrates attach to the charcoal. Activated charcoal has been expanded, like popcorn, so it has lots of surface area. The surface has a weak attraction for the gasoline (and nitrate) molecules.

In the canister, there is an additional physical effect of a concentration gradient. When the vapors are vented through the charcoal, the vented air has a higher concentration than the charcoal. This adds diffusion to the picture - the gasoline will diffuse into the charcoal bed and stick to the surfaces. When the engine is running, clean air is drawn through the bottom of the canister. This reverses the concentration gradient, and the gasoline diffuses toward the incoming air and is carried into the engine.

It's a balance. You could imagine that the charcoal would become saturated if it continually sits in the vapor stream without being purged by the engine running. In most cases, the engine is run often enough to prevent that. You can imagine that, on a cross country trip, enough air has been drawn in so the charcoal approaches 100% purged.

This is all probabilistic. Diffusion and affinity can compete or cooperate, depending on what the concentration gradient is. And you'll never achieve 100% saturation or 100% purge. My subjective judgement is the charcoal works pretty well - my nose is sensitive, and I detect no stink in a closed garage. Works well.

[candymancan]

charcoal cannot be renewed... or purged.. it also doesnt absorb nitrates, or nitrites, etc its ment for chemical and some biological filtration only, . If air purged charcoal you would never need to replace a facemask either. but you do the affect of filtration diminishes till its saturated and it cannot be renewed.. look it up

[tgreese]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ohDB5gbtaEQ

[candymancan]

But you never admit when youre wrong. You have a lot of info up there but youre not right about this

[tgreese]

Nah. I've been wrong plenty of times, but I try to learn something.

Here's a couple of articles you can read. These are just what I could find easily and for free. First supports my notion of reversibility, ie adsorption and desorption. Same phenomenon as in carbon, though a different material (zeolites). Physical performance of zeolites and carbon should be similar. Second is about combining zeolites and carbon for filtering fish water. It is more specific about what's dissolved in the water but covers chemical filtering. I looked and did not find anything that contradicts what I described, other than the primacy of nitrates (there are nitrates in fish water, but also ammonia and lots of other stuff). You are welcome to find sources supporting your claims. I will not engage in an argument.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 20-00260-1
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 371930346X